


Distractions

by tsuki_llama



Series: Distractions [2]
Category: Darker Than Black
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-04
Updated: 2016-01-03
Packaged: 2018-04-24 16:25:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 30
Words: 70,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4926742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsuki_llama/pseuds/tsuki_llama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to One Hour at a Time. Hei and Misaki struggle separately to adjust to a new normal following their bargain - but things get even more complicated when a woman from Hei's past appears in Tokyo.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** This is the sequel to _One Hour at a Time_.  It's set during season 1, picking up shortly after the end of the previous story.

* * *

"Bai! Bai!" Hei crashed through the underbrush, not caring about the noise he was making. There was no one left to hear.

"Bai!" There was a body on the ground ahead of him - red hair. Not her. Hei jumped over it, pushing his way through the dense jungle where it impeded his path. Another body, slumped against a tree - a man. Not her.

He passed two more corpses, and knew he was getting closer. The thick, steamy air pressed in on him, suffocating.

He almost missed her. Standing with her back to him, in her black uniform and black hair, she blended seamlessly into the night. Only the white skin of her neck stood out against the darkness. "Bai! Are you alright?"

"I can't see the stars."

Hei followed her gaze upwards. "There are too many trees."

"No. That's not it."

Bai turned her face towards him. Hei recoiled in horror. Blood covered her face, weeping from empty eye sockets.

"You said you'd always protect me, Brother," she said in a dead voice. "Where were you?"

Hei stumbled back until he felt hands on his back. Spinning, he came face to face with a sea of corpses, all eyeless and dripping thick black blood. The red-haired woman he'd passed on his way here, the blond contractor he'd killed yesterday; each bloodied face was one he'd seen die. They crowded in, pushing each other, reaching out with skeletal hands.

Behind him, Bai clutched his shoulder, claw-like fingers digging painfully into his flesh. She was going to kill him. He tore himself from her grasp, afraid to look into her eyeless, accusing face, and plunged into the horde of the dead.

Hei drew his knives and slashed at the nearest corpse, trying to clear a path of escape. But the face he cut, he saw in sudden shock, was Bai's. The corpse next to her bore her face as well, and looking into the dead crowd, he saw that they were _all_ his sister, reaching, clawing, pulling him into a terrible embrace.

Another hand grasped his shoulder. _Bai, Bai, I'm so sorry._ Hei brought his knife up to the pale white throat of the thing that used to be his sister, and -

"Hei, wake up."

The blade stopped a mere millimeter from Amber's throat. She didn't flinch, didn't even blink. She never did.

"…Amber?" Hei managed, his breath coming in ragged gasps.

"You were having another nightmare." Her voice was impassive, bored even, but her eyes were soft as she leaned over him, giving his shoulder another gentle squeeze. Her pale yellow hair, limp in the thick fug of the jungle, brushed his face. He hated that.

Hei took in his surroundings, heart still pounding. He was lying on his sleeping pallet in a nylon tent that shut out most of the daylight. The shadowy outlines of trees shifted slowly on the walls amid a cacophony of birds and insects. Camp. It was just a dream, then.

Hei took the knife from Amber's throat and casually brushed her hand away. "Don't wake me up like that. One of these days I'm going to kill you."

"You won't," she said simply.

He hated how she always acted like she knew more than everyone else.

She didn't move when he tried to sit up, and he had to push her back himself, hands slipping up under the sleeves of her shirt to grip her upper arms. She didn't resist.

He hated how smooth her skin was.

Amber sat calmly at the edge of his sleeping pallet, her hip pressed against his thigh. His heart was still racing from the dream, and being so close to her didn't do much to slow it.

He avoided her eyes and turned to look at the pallet next to his. His sister lay sleeping peacefully, looking for all the world like a sweet, innocent fourteen year old girl, rather than the heartless killer she truly was.

"She's fine," Amber assured him. "You need to get some rest though, we have a mission tonight." She trailed a hand down his bare chest, slick with sweat from the stifling confines of the tent and the adrenaline released by the dream.

Hei felt an involuntary quiver at her touch. He hated how she could do that to him. "I'm fine."

"It's alright, Hei," Amber told him. He didn't need to look at her to know she was smiling gently, fake concern on her face. "You can't keep your emotions bottled up like this, you'll drive yourself mad - you're still human, after all. Let me help you." Her fingertips traversed the tensed muscles of his stomach to toy with the drawstring of his pants.

He hated how she was always right.

"Do we have time?" he asked, still not meeting her eyes.

"Time enough," she said, like she always did. An eerie blue glow briefly illuminated the tent's interior. In an instant Bai's breathing stopped - but so did the slowly drifting shadows on the wall, and silence now hung in the air.

Amber cupped his cheek and turned his face towards hers. He kissed her without hesitation, pulling her into his lap and channeling the horror and guilt he'd reaped over the past few days into a desperate passion.

He hated how much he needed her.

Amber answered in kind, running her hands down his back, tangling her fingers in his hair, slipping her tongue into his mouth to taste him, breaking off only long enough to let him pull her shirt up over her head.

He hated the way she came alive in his arms.

Hei pushed her back onto the mat, running his hands along the curves of her breasts, her hips. Amber wrapped herself around him, her body hot against his. Her kisses were becoming more insistent, almost frantic.

He hated the way her caresses smoothed the frayed edges of his soul.

Then he heard a gasp, that didn't come from either him or Amber. He turned his head and caught sight of his sister, still lying on the mat next to his. Bai's eyes were open and staring directly at him, but unseeing. A knife - his - was buried in her chest up to the hilt.

 _Bai!_ Gasping, Hei tried to move to her, but Amber held him fast. She gripped his lank hair and forced his face back to hers, biting his lip so hard she drew blood. It filled his mouth and fell in bright red splotches onto her pale breast.

His heart seized in sudden pain. Amber relinquished her grasp on him just enough for him to look down and see another of his knives - this one plunged deep into his own chest. Her hand was wrapped around the hilt, red with his blood. It ran down her arm, dripping from her elbow to pool with the rest.

"Really, Hei," she said with a sad smile. "What else did you expect?"

He loved her. He hated that most of all.

~~~~o~~~~

Hei woke with a start, his chest heaving in the light of early dawn. He was in his empty apartment in Tokyo, miles, and years, away from South America and the war. He squeezed his eyes shut and willed his breathing to slow back to normal, relaxing back onto the futon with an exhausted sigh.

He'd had vivid dreams like that all throughout the war. They'd been even worse in the beginning, before Amber had come to his bed. But they had stopped completely after he became a contractor. Contractors didn't dream.

Except now, in the past couple of weeks, he'd begun dreaming again. The dreams set his nerves on edge and left him feeling as if he hadn't slept at all. Had they started after he'd seen Amber at the shrine?

He thought back. No, they'd started after he had kissed Misaki.

 _No_ , he corrected himself. _After Chief Kirihara kissed_ me. True, he had kissed her back. But only because he needed to convince her not to talk, convince her that she could trust him. Returning her kiss had been the logical way to do it.

She'd probably only done it out of the adrenaline fatigue that came with being kidnapped and threatened with death. It hadn't meant anything. Neither did the dreams.

Hei rose from his futon and paced to the kitchen sink, where he splashed cold water on his face to wash off the night sweat.

_Focus on the job at hand. Forget the past. The future is meaningless. Emotions are unnecessary distractions._

As he started preparing breakfast, he heard a familiar jingling sound from the open window behind him.

"Good, you're up." Mao jumped down into the apartment. "We have a job tonight."


	2. Chapter 2

Xu Jiao-tu clutched the strap of her messenger bag tightly as she stood in the brightly lit hall. It was emptier than usual - most of the other students were at dinner, or preparing for their evening classes.

She took a deep breath, and stepped up to the office door. She'd put this off long enough. Not because she was afraid of Professor Iwakara. Mei-li was afraid of him; Jiao-tu had asked her come with her tonight (to help the other girl get over her fear - not because Jiao-tu was afraid to talk to him alone), but Mei-li had pretended that she had too much homework.

No, Jiao-tu was just hesitating because she didn't want to be rude. Professor Iwakara had a tendency to shout at students who were rude.

_You're a dragon, not a rabbit_ , she reminded herself. Jiao-tu raised her hand to knock. She paused though when she heard the sound of angry voices through the door. Great, he was in a bad mood already.

It sounded more like an argument than an angry lecture. She could only catch a few of the words, and she couldn't tell who was speaking. Jiao-tu leaned in closer to the door. Not because she was snooping; she just didn't to interrupt something important.

"How…willing to sell…than financial gain?"

"…I…my intellectual…none of your..."

"Your property? …theory is just as much…!"

"…you work…everything inside…of yours belongs to me!"

"…money…so badly…Pandora…theory is correct…repercussions will… neutral hands-"

"…Pandora line again…seem to think. …Schroeder?" Jiao-tu's ears perked up at the mention of Pandora. She strained to hear better.

"Of course…papers..."

"Yes…don't know…Pandora got hold…and no one…since."

"…hundred reasons…none…Pandora."

"…want to think. I'm done with…discussion. …belongs to me, and I'll…Now get out…appointment..."

"Fine…making a mistake."

Then, abruptly, the argument cut off, and a door slammed so hard that the frosted glass in the one in front of her rattled.

Maybe it would be better to come back tomorrow…

Jiao-tu gave a frightened rabbit squeak as the door flew open in front of her. Her bag fell from her hands to land on the floor of the hallway, papers and pens spilling out.

"Xu! I'm sorry, I didn't see you there," said the most beautiful voice Jiao-tu had ever heard. She felt a thrill at the knowledge that he knew her name - then realized that as one of the only two females in the class, it would be stranger if he didn't.

"Um, no, I'm sorry," she stammered, and dropped to the ground to pick up her things. Because it was her fault she'd dropped the bag; not because she was afraid to look at him.

"Here, let me help you with that," said Arakawa Hiro, Professor Iwakara's teaching assistant. He squatted down to gather the things that had spilled from her bag.

"Are you here to pick up your assignment?" Arakawa asked, glancing at her with his caramel-y brown eyes.

Jiao-tu felt her heart melting, but she forced herself to speak. "Um, yes."

Arakawa stood and handed her the bag. As she took it, his fingers lightly brushed against hers. She tried not to squeak again.

"The professor's not in the best mood - we were just arguing about the way I was grading the papers." Arakawa put his hands in his pockets, looking a little embarrassed. "I hope he doesn't bite your head off."

_You're a dragon, not a rabbit_. Jiao-tu took a deep breath, and smiled nervously. "Don't worry, I'll be fine - I know kung fu." She hoped she hadn't mangled the sentence - she was much less adept at speaking Japanese than she was at understanding it.

She must have done alright, because Arakawa laughed. "Good, you might need it. Even so, I'd better go in with you - for moral support."

He held the outer office door open for her, and she entered a room that held one desk, several computer monitors, and enough stacks of paper to fill half of Tokodai's library. The room was empty of people, however.

"He's in the lab," Arakawa said, gesturing to a door on the right. Then he leaned over to whisper in her ear (Jiao-tu felt her knees go weak). "Best not to argue with him. Just nod and look contrite, and you'll escape without a scratch."

He opened the door, and this time went ahead of her. "Miss Xu to see you, Professor."

Jiao-tu followed him in. The lab space wasn't huge, but if it were possible, it was even more crowded than the office. Four benches held a fascinating array of equipment - she recognized a scanning probing microscope from one of her lectures, as well as a dilution refrigerator. Where the office was littered with paper, the lab was a jungle of wires and spare mechanical parts.

Jiao-tu looked at the instruments longingly. If she had been alone with Arakawa, she would have begged him to show her how they worked. She didn't dare try that with Iwakara though.

Professor Iwakara was sitting at a computer that was crammed into the corner near the door. Jiao-tu would definitely have preferred to be alone with Arakawa. The middle-aged professor had the look of a man who had once been fit, but spent far too many hours in front of a computer; what was left of his black hair was oily and streaked with gray. She really didn't mind his physical appearance that much - it was the perpetual scowl on his face that made her want to turn tail and make a run for the door.

He looked cross to see Arakawa back so soon, and even crosser to see Jiao-tu there as well. "Xu, was it?" he asked brusquely, and turned to sift through a stack of papers on his left.

"They're on the other side," Arakawa said good-naturedly. The professor shot him a disapproving glare, but picked up the stack on his right and thumbed through them until he found hers.

"Ah, Xu. I remember this one. You make a solid argument, but even a monkey could explain electronic band structure. Here," he hit the paper with the back of his hand, "you completely ignore the Fermi-Dirac distribution…"

Jiao-tu didn't need to remember Arakawa's advice; she stood silently and let the professor's criticisms squash her flat like several dozen steam rollers. She couldn't follow half of what he was saying, because he was speaking much faster than he ever did in the lecture hall, and most of it was interspersed with Japanese swears she hadn't learned yet.

At one point Jiao-tu glanced over at Arakawa, who winked at her before backing out to wait in the office. It was a long wait.

Finally she exited the lab, closing the door gently behind her. Arakawa looked up from one of the computer monitors. "Good job - sounds like he liked your work." He laughed at the look she gave him. "I mean it - he only called you a monkey once, and gave you actual criticisms instead of just tearing you a new one. There was a guy in here earlier who left in tears."

Jiao-tu managed a smile. She was afraid she _would_ break down in tears if she tried to say anything.

"Oh!" Arakawa said, then reached into his pocket to pull out a cell phone. "Is this yours? I found it next to the bookcase." He pointed to a large fixture that was next to the main door.

"Oh, yes!" Jaio-tu recognized the dragon charm she'd tied to it. She took it from him shyly. Just as with her bag, their hands touched ever so briefly. "Thanks."

"No problem. It must have fallen out of your bag when you dropped it earlier. Well, I have some work to finish up in the library. See you in class tomorrow." He smiled.

"See you." Blushing furiously, she left the office.

~~~~o~~~~

Hei exited the restaurant through the sweltering kitchen; the cool night air was a pleasant change. He exchanged a friendly nod with one of the cooks, who was outside taking a smoke break, and strolled casually out to the street.

"Perfect night for a walk in the park," said a voice at his feet. He didn't need to look down to know it was Mao.

"Which park?" Hei asked quietly, so as not to appear to be talking to himself in public. It was early evening, and the streets were still busy.

"The one just down the block, near the university." The cat turned down an alley. Hei followed. It was empty of people; they could talk here without being observed.

Hei was glad they finally had work after such a long break. A job gave him something to focus on, gave him a reprieve from trying to live like a normal human. These days, he felt as if he was running out of energy to put in the effort necessary to fake human interactions. On a job, only the physical and mental was required - emotion never entered into it, false or otherwise.

Mao hopped onto a dumpster. "It's closed this time of night and dark besides. Even better, there aren't any power lines, and hardly any lamps - the police doll network isn't going to be able to see anything. The only downside is, as dry as it has been lately, there isn't much water for Yin. You're to meet your contact by a drinking fountain on one of the paths, so she'll at least be able to observe him - but no other areas."

"Are we expecting trouble?" Hei squatted down and reached behind the dumpster. His bulletproof coat, knives and mask neatly folded up inside, was tucked between the metal and the concrete wall.

"It's possible. The Syndicate is paying a hefty price for this flash drive; something as hot as this may attract a rival organization or two."

"How do you know how much they're paying?"

Mao licked a paw casually, but Hei thought he looked a little smug. "The Syndicate set up a special account for the money transfer," the cat explained. "I have access to it. As soon as our contact hands over the drive, I transfer the money to his account."

"Sounds simple."

Mao gave a snort. "It's always the simple ones that go wrong."


	3. Chapter 3

Jiao-tu breathed in the fresh air, basking in the orange glow of sunset. The encroaching night was cool, but she didn't care - the memory of Arakawa's hand brushing hers suffused her whole being with a pleasant warmth. Once could be just an accident, but twice?

Professor Iwakara's acerbic comments on her lack of critical reasoning were fading from her memory already. Jiao-tu wished that Arakawa had been the one to grade her assignment; he would have been much more understanding, she was sure.

She wasn't ready to go back to her apartment yet - Mei-li and Liang would know something was up and demand all the details, and then the moment of hand brushing hand wouldn't belong to just her anymore. She wanted to savor it a bit longer.

There was a park just up ahead. Ignoring the sign on the gate, which she could only half read anyway (something about being closed - but only rabbits cared about keep out signs), Jiao-tu hopped the low fence and followed a gravel path deep into the park.

It was peaceful in here, shielded from the lights of the city and the sound of rushing traffic. She found a spot near a ginko tree, and dropped her bag before sitting down with her back against it. The tree reminded her of home.

Not that she was homesick; she'd been in Tokyo over a year now, and she talked with her family every weekend. But the city still felt foreign to her, like she was a stranger who didn't belong.

The sun had sunk below the horizon, and the first stars were starting to come out. Jiao-tu knew that they were fake stars. She'd never cared much about the old ones, but now that they were gone, she missed them fiercely.

Tian had known the names of all the old stars; the constellations too. She'd gone out stargazing with him and Xing once, on a weekend trip in the country. But there were mosquitoes by the lake, and bullfrogs that gave you warts, and the wind in the trees sounded like people moaning. She'd run back inside after just a short time, where her aunt had hot tea waiting and Jiang was watching an old kung fu movie. Now she wished she'd stayed out longer, that she'd spent as much time as possible with Tian and Xing while she had the chance.

Still, these new stars weren't all bad. Jiao-tu had heard the rumors, of course, that the false stars were actually the souls of people, taken by the Gate. She wondered idly if Tian and Xing could see the same stars, wherever they were. Or maybe their souls were up there in the night sky now, watching over the family they'd left behind. The idea was comforting.

She scanned the sky for her favorite star. There, just peeking out from behind a tall office building. She didn't know why she liked that particular star so much; maybe because it had been one of the first to appear after the true stars vanished; maybe because it was always there, constant, when so many of the others had fallen in the last decade; maybe because it sometimes seemed to shine brighter than the others.

It was shining brightly now.

_I wonder if Arakawa likes to watch the stars._ She smiled to herself.

~~~~o~~~~

"He's there." Yin's emotionless voice was soft in Hei's ear. "Alone."

"I see him," Hei whispered into his mic. From his perch in a large tree, he could see his contact waiting near the drinking fountain. Hei was glad the man was on time; he only had half an hour for his break.

Physically, the man didn't look very threatening: overweight, slouched posture. He kept running a hand nervously through his thinning hair. But looks could be deceiving.

Hei slipped silently from the tree and approached his contact. The man was looking down the gravel path towards the entrance to the park, and so was completely unprepared when Hei spoke quietly behind him.

"You have the item?"

"Shi-!" The man bit off his curse as he turned, and Hei saw his eyes go wide with fright when they caught sight of his white mask gleaming in the darkness.

"Who - who are you?"

Hei ignored the question. "The item?"

"Right. I have it." The man fumbled around in his pants pocket, and withdrew a small thumb drive, but didn't hand it over. "My payment?"

"Transferring the money now," came Mao's voice in Hei's ear.

"Check your account," Hei said impassively.

His contact eagerly pulled out his cell phone. After a few taps, a scowl appeared on his face. "This is only half of what I agreed to!"

"You'll get the rest once we verify the item." Hei took two steps closer and held out a black-gloved hand. He was close enough to catch and electrocute the man if he tried anything desperate.

The man started to back away, sweating profusely despite the cool night, but then glanced at his phone again. _Fear and greed, the two most powerful human motivators_ , Hei thought to himself with disgust.

The man dropped the flash drive into Hei's outstretched hand; Hei pocketed it.

"How long -" the man started to ask.

"Hei, roll left." Hei threw himself to the left before his conscious mind had even registered Yin's command; he hit the ground just as a _whoosh_ of air streaked over his head. The drinking fountain shattered in a rain of concrete and water. Somewhere behind him, his contact was screaming.

"Mao, get the contact out of here, we may need him still. I'll take care of the contractor." Hei didn't wait for an answer. He rolled to his feet and sprinted into the trees, weaving left and right. Another blast of air shattered the trunk of a large ginko tree ahead of him.

He could hear the sounds of pursuit. This contractor thought he was running his prey to ground, a frightened rabbit seeking shelter among the trees. He was wrong. The Black Reaper had been born in the darkest reaches of the jungle; this was Hei's hunting ground.


	4. Chapter 4

Kirihara Misaki flipped on the lights and surveyed her apartment for a long moment, before finally entering and shutting the door with a sigh. This was becoming too much of a ritual, but she just couldn't seem to break out of it.

It wasn't not like she actually expected to see anything other than an empty apartment. She wasn't even sure she wanted to see anything else. After all, if he _did_ show up in her apartment after dark, it would most likely be to kill her, not to sweep her off her feet.

She didn't know which option was more terrifying.

Misaki tossed her purse and keys onto the kitchen counter and opened the fridge. Two week-old take-out containers…a bunch of brown bananas…a yogurt. She took the yogurt, and leaned against the counter to eat.

She hadn't seen Hei - or Li, for that matter - in nearly three weeks. Not since the night he had spared her life in exchange for her silence. Not since the night he had kissed her.

At least, she _thought_ he had kissed her. Her memory of the moments before he'd knocked her out was hazy. She clearly remembered agreeing to his deal, and him standing over her, explaining that he had to shock her, gazing deep into her eyes, and then…hazy.

She might have dreamed the whole thing. After all, she'd been out for hours. Long enough for him to remove every last trace of his team's occupation from the rundown old bar - even the towel he had given her to clean her hands with was gone. It was late in the morning when she finally awoke in a hospital bed, having been found unconscious in the basement of the bar after someone (Hei, she presumed) called the police with an anonymous tip.

The whole situation still baffled her. Why hadn't he just killed her? Contractors were too pragmatic to leave loose ends dangling - and a cop whose mission it was to discover his identity and arrest him was one hell of a loose end. He had implied that he had feelings for her; but that was completely crazy. He was a contractor.

…But if he did have feelings for her, then why hadn't she seen him again? For that matter, why should she care? He was an assassin - a _contractor_!

Or had he realized that it was a mistake to trust her after all, and he was just waiting for the right time to silence her forever?

The doorbell rang, startling Misaki so badly that she slopped yogurt over her hand. Cursing herself for being a paranoid idiot (like he would actually ring the doorbell - or would he? He had been oddly polite whilst she was in his possession), she went to answer the door. Her palms were sweating as she turned the handle.

"Hungry?" Kanami held up two bags of take-out, spotted with grease.

"Oh, thank god," Misaki said - though whether the relief was from seeing her friend or the food, she didn't know. "How did you know I was home?"

Kanami slipped off her shoes, and handed the bags to Misaki. "I heard you got kicked out of the office; and these days if you're not there, you're here."

"I was not kicked out," Misaki protested as she returned to the kitchen to get out two bowls. "The Director just…suggested…that I take a break for dinner. Somewhere else." She purposely ignored the second half of Kanami's comment.

"Everyone's still walking on eggshells around you, huh?"

Misaki sighed. "Yes. And it's driving me crazy. I don't know how many times I've had to tell Saitou that I'm not upset about his phone being off - it was my own fault for walking into…whatever it was I walked into."

"Hm, maybe that's the problem," Kanami mused. "Misaki, this expired a month ago!"

Misaki looked at her friend; Kanami was holding up the yogurt container. "Expired yogurt is the problem?"

"No. Well, maybe." Kanami opened the fridge. "Tch! When was the last time you went grocery shopping?"

Her palms were sweating again. She wiped them off on a napkin. "I don't know; I've been busy." _And what if I run into Li Shengshun while I'm out at the grocery store?_ She wanted so badly to see him again; and yet, was terrified of what would happen if she did.

"See, that is the problem." Kanami crossed her arms and gave Misaki a pointed look. "You're _not_ that busy, but you've been putting in extra hours anyway; you're avoiding social interactions completely; you aren't giving your team the usual hard time; you just…haven't been acting like yourself."

Misaki crossed the room to the sofa and began eating. She didn't have a rebuttal to Kanami's observations; everything she said was true.

"I can't imagine how horrifying it must be," Kanami continued, following Misaki to the sofa with her own bowl. "To know you were in the hands of such a dangerous contractor, and not be able to remember a thing. But - I don't know, I would have expected you to be more furious about it, to put all your effort into catching him. Instead you let the rest of your team handle the investigation, and you haven't badgered me about his star once."

"There was nothing left to investigate," Misaki said around a dumpling.

"Unless…"

"Unless what?"

Her friend looked at her shrewdly. "Unless you _do_ remember something about that night."

Misaki coughed and nearly choked on the dumpling.

"I knew it! There _is_ something you haven't said!"

"It's not…look, I can't explain it." She rubbed her temple. "I guess I'm just worried about running into him again. He's let me go with my life twice now; I really don't want to bet on a third time. And burying myself in work is the only way I can distract myself."

"Misaki…"

"It's alright," Misaki assured her. "You're right. I need to get back to my old self. There's no point in worrying; if I see him again, I'll shoot him." She'd told Hei the same thing, she remembered - maybe _that_ was why she hadn't seen him.

Kanami smiled. "That's more like it."

The two continued their dinner with more frivolous conversation. Misaki felt her anxiety starting to wash away. Kanami _was_ right: she needed to stop worrying about what Hei might or might not do, what he might or might not be thinking, and just focus on herself again.

Kanami's phone buzzed. She looked at the screen.

"What is it?" Misaki asked, watching her friend's face.

"Nothing," Kanami said, a little too casually. "Just work stuff."

"Work stuff, like contractor activity?"

"Don't worry about it."

"It's BK-201, isn't it?" Misaki wiped her palms on a napkin. "Look, you just made me promise to start acting like myself again, and that includes 'badgering' you about his activity."

Kanami sighed. "Fine. I guess you're still on duty anyway, aren't you. Three stars are active, although they haven't been able to get a fix on the contractors' location."

"Which stars?"

"TX-788, SY-573, …and BK-201."


	5. Chapter 5

Misaki frowned down at the two dead men. One had been stabbed through the heart. The other bore no outward appearance of injury; but his face, frozen in a terrified rictus of death, coupled with the preliminary star readings that were coming in, told her everything she needed to know. BK-201.

_Damn him_.

It had taken two hours for her team to locate the source of the contractor activity. The doll network had been useless; it wasn't until Oostuka had tracked down reports of a disturbance in the park that they'd finally discovered the dead contractors. By then, BK-201 and anyone else who had been there was long gone.

Inwardly, she was relieved. She didn't know what she would do if she came face to face with Hei. If he was threatening an innocent person, she had no doubt she'd do as she'd promised and try to shoot him - but if she'd walked in on this? A fight between contractors?

"Chief, you alright?"

"What?" Misaki looked up to see that Kouno was now standing next to her.

"You seem a little distracted," her subordinate said.

"It's nothing," she said, a tad harshly. "Astronomics reported that two stars fell."

"TX-788 and SY-573," Kouno said. "SY-573 had a wind control ability - he's probably the one responsible for the mess." Kouno gestured at the park. Portable floodlights illuminated fallen trees and shattered branches littering the area. It looked like a small tornado had gone through. "I wonder which one he was."

"Hardly matters now," Misaki said. "What does matter is that he's dead, and we need to know what happened here. Saitou said there was a witness?"

Kouno pointed to a low hedge. "First responders on the scene found her behind that bush, completely terrified. She was nearly creamed by a flying branch. Seems like she saw the whole thing."

Misaki frowned. "Seems like? You haven't taken her statement?"

"Uh, we're having some problems with that. We can't get any answers out of her. She's a foreign exchange student - I don't know whether she can't understand us, or she's just freaked out. EMTs are treating her for shock."

"Where?"

Her subordinate led the way further down the path. Out of the harsh glare of the floodlights, the gravel wound its way through trees, still intact here, until it ended at a park bench under the soft light of a lamp. A small drinking fountain stood nearby.

A young woman in her late teens or early twenties sat on the bench, clutching a blanket around her shoulders as if it was the only thing that existed in the world. A man in the uniform of an EMT was sitting next to her, talking quietly, but she didn't appear to be aware of him.

Matsumoto was standing nearby, speaking with another EMT. The two broke off their conversation when Misaki and Kouno approached.

"Any injuries?" Misaki asked.

The EMT shook his head. "She's a little shocky, but otherwise in good shape. If she calms down soon, we won't even need to take her in to the hospital."

"She hasn't said anything yet, but she did show us her ID," Matsumoto reported. He pulled a small notebook out of his suit pocket. "Xu Jiao-tu," he stumbled over the unfamiliar name. "Exchange student from Xi'an city, Shaanxi Province, in China. That's all we know so far."

"She has problems understanding Japanese?"

"Hard to say," the EMT put in. "It could just be the shock. Although, it may be helpful to have another woman try talking to her."

Misaki was about to suggest that they radio for a female officer to come down when she noticed the look Kouno and Matsumoto exchanged. Oh. He meant _her_. She ignored her subordinates. It wasn't that she wasn't a kind or friendly person…it was just that _nuturing_ and _comforting_ weren't exactly in her repertoire as a police officer, especially in the middle of a crime scene investigation.

Trying not to frown or look too severe, she approached the bench. "May I have a word with her?" she asked the EMT who had been speaking to the woman. The EMT nodded, and gave her his seat.

Misaki laid a tentative hand on the woman's shoulder. The woman gave a start, and turned to look at her. Her cheeks were streaked with tears and dirt, and there were dried leaves stuck in her short black hair. "Do you understand Japanese?" Misaki asked.

The woman nodded hesitantly.

Good. That was progress. "Your name is Miss Xu, right?" That was the only part of the name Misaki could remember.

Another nod.

"My name is Kirihara Misaki. I work for the Public Safety Bureau - the police." The woman seemed to be following her so far, so Misaki continued. "Can you tell me what you saw tonight?"

The woman's lower lip began to tremble, and her eyes welled with tears. She seemed to be fumbling for words; then she shook her head violently.

Misaki squeezed her shoulder gently. "It's alright, you're safe. We're the police, you can tell us what happened."

The woman started talking then, but in rapid Chinese. She stopped long enough to shake her head again, and said in accented Japanese, "Can't say. Please. So sorry." She sounded utterly miserable.

Misaki turned to her subordinates. "Has anyone tried getting a translator?"

"We haven't been able to find anyone in the department," Matsumoto said. "And the Chinese embassy is closed until the morning."

Misaki suppressed a sigh. What the hell was she supposed to do? They didn't actually need a witness; she knew exactly who the culprit was and where to find him. But she couldn't just walk up to Hei's apartment and ask that he kindly turn himself in - he'd kill her, no matter how much back up she brought.

And besides, she'd given her word she would forget that BK-201's alias was Li Shengshun.

Well, she had told Kanami she'd try and be her old self again. What would she have done if she really had forgotten that she knew who BK-201 was? _Hm, get impatient, probably._

"That's too long to wait," she said sharply. "We need to start tracking leads _now_."

"Saitou said he had an idea," Kouno offered hesitantly.

Misaki frowned. "What idea?"

"There's a Chinese guy working at the restaurant just up the block - you know, where we get take-out from for the office."

"A civilian? That's against protocol. We can't bring someone like that in on a case like this," she said.

Kouno actually looked relieved at her severe tone. Had she really been acting so differently? "Yeah, I know. But we knew you wouldn't be happy about waiting all night for a translator…"

"Chief!" She turned, and saw Saitou walking up the dark path, another man beside him. Misaki rose from the bench and went to meet them.

"Saitou, this really isn't -" She cut off abruptly when she saw who Saitou had brought. Her heart skipped a beat. Possibly ten.

"Hello, Chief Kirihara. Good to see you again."

~~~~o~~~~

"L-Li!" Kirihara stammered, cool composure gone in an instant. Hei wondered if she was blushing; it was too dark to tell. "I didn't - I mean, I didn't know you were the one Saitou went to get."

He believed her; the surprise on her face was too genuine. But she took a deep breath, and recovered herself.

"Normally, we wouldn't bring in a civilian for this sort of thing - it's against protocol." The police chief shot a glare at her subordinate, who looked abashed at the silent reprimand.

"It's not a problem," Hei assured her in his Li persona, eyes open and smiling.

"I really don't think that's for you to say," Kirihara said pointedly. Obviously she suspected his motives for agreeing to help.

But he hadn't had a choice, really: he'd refused Saitou at first, explaining that he'd already taken his break and couldn't leave again in the middle of his shift. Except then his manager had stepped in and insisted that Li do whatever he could to assist the police, who were such brave protectors of the city (and such good and loyal customers).

Hei had no qualms about visiting the scene of his crime. He was a little tired after the earlier fight, but he hadn't sustained any injuries that the police would notice. He wasn't even worried about the witness - there had been nothing _to_ witness that the police couldn't deduce on their own. If this person had been close enough to see the hand-off, Yin would have picked them up.

No, he was just a little reluctant to meet Kirihara Misaki again. He thought he had a good handle on her character - but she was human, which meant that she was unpredictable.

She'd also promised to shoot him if she met him again as the Black Reaper, and he didn't know if this situation counted or not.

"No, that's up to you," Hei said unconcernedly, still smiling. "But I'm happy to help."

"Thank you," Kirihara said, still eyeing him. Hei was suddenly glad that it was so dark; he had no idea what expression her eyes, usually so warm, held, and he didn't want to know.

Finally she said, "I suppose since you're here, you might as well." _The damage has already been done_ , is what her tone was telling him.

She motioned towards the young woman sitting on the bench. "I think she understands Japanese pretty well - we just need you to translate her answers, and the questions if she needs it. If you don't mind, I'll record the conversation - in case we need to refer back to it later."

_In case I lie about what she says, you can verify it with an official translator._ "Good thinking," he told her with a friendly Li smile.

"Right. This way." Kirihara led him over to the witness, and touched her shoulder. The young woman looked up at them, and Hei stopped dead in his tracks.

_Bai?_


	6. Chapter 6

All he could do was stare. It couldn't be her. It couldn't. Bai had disappeared in South America five years ago. After all that time searching for her, she _couldn't_ just show up on a park bench in the middle of Tokyo, crying and staring at him like _he_ was the ghost.

Wait, crying? He hadn't seen Bai cry once, not since she'd become a contractor. Bai couldn't even pretend at emotions like that.

But the young woman who couldn't be Bai was looking at him in stunned disbelief, her mouth hanging open. She knew him.

"Is there something wrong?" Kirihara asked, looking between the two of them. From the corner of his eye, Hei saw her hand drift towards the gun holster under her jacket, and he tensed.

" _Tian?_ " The sound of that name snapped his full attention back to the young woman, and suddenly he recognized her.

"Jiao-tu?" The name was out of his mouth before he stopped to think.

She gave a cry that could have been joy or anguish or anything in between, and jumped from the park bench to throw herself into his arms. He caught her automatically.

For the first time since becoming a contractor, Hei had absolutely no idea what to do.

Jiao-tu was sobbing into his chest. She really did remind him of Bai, clinging to him like that. No, not Bai - Xing. Xing, after she'd had a nightmare, and she climbed into his bed scared and shaking.

" _Tian…I can't believe it's really you!_ "

Hei had no reply. He hadn't heard that name in so long. He'd almost forgotten it. He thought he _had_ forgotten it.

" _I'm so glad you're here!"_ She continued crying, her tears soaking his work shirt. _"I was so scared, I thought they were going to kill me, and I was too afraid to call the police, all I could do was hide, and then I was still so scared I couldn't remember any Japanese, and why did you leave? We all thought you were dead, how could you!_ " She delivered the last with a wild punch to his shoulder. Then she kept punching him. " _You stupid! Stupid!_ "

The blows didn't hurt, but he was too numb to react even if they had. "Whoa, whoa," someone was saying, and a hand - Kirihara's - grabbed Jiao-tu's arm. The contact startled her, and she flinched into Hei.

He held her protectively. " _It's alright_ ," he said. Kirihara and her team were staring at them, clearly bewildered; Hei realized then that they'd been speaking in Mandarin Chinese. "It's alright," he repeated in Japanese. "She's my cousin."

"Your cousin?" Kirihara said doubtfully.

"Hey, Li, I didn't know you had family in the city!" Saitou said with a smile.

"I didn't either," Hei managed. There was no lie that came to mind, and Jiao-tu could contradict anything he said in any case. What was she doing in Tokyo?

_"Tian,_ " the girl murmured, with her face still pressed into his chest, " _why did you leave?_ " She'd stopped hitting him, but he suspected it was only because she was exhausted. She clutched his jacket tightly, as if afraid he was going to disappear if she let go.

He wanted disappear. He wanted to throw her to the ground, throw her away from him, and run, run from this park, from Tokyo, from the whole world of memories and emotions that he'd closed the door on so long ago and were now threatening to spill out and become reality again.

But he couldn't run; not with the police there. Not with the Syndicate's eyes on him.

Hei forced himself to focus. She wasn't his cousin anymore. There was nothing rational about caring for others, family or otherwise. He had to play the game and convince the police - especially Kirihara - that he was concerned for Jiao-tu, but it was still just a lie.

_Emotions are useless distractions._

He guided the girl who wasn't his cousin back to the bench and sat her down next to him. She leaned against his shoulder, eyes half-shut and arms wrapped tightly around one of his. He tried not to see her resemblance to his sister.

" _What are you doing in Japan? Where's Xing?_ " Jiao-tu asked his shoulder.

" _We can talk after we're done with the police_ ," Hei promised her. And say what?

" _Oh. I forgot about them."_   Jiao-tu sniffed, and wiped her nose on her sleeve.

He pulled a dried leaf from her hair. " _Are you going to be alright to talk, Xiao-tu?_ "

" _No one calls me_ Xiao _anymore_ ," she said, but he saw her smile a little at the old nickname. " _I can talk. I'm a dragon_."

He'd forgotten how she used to say that. It felt so surreal, sitting here with Jiao-tu. He tried to recall the last time he had seen her. Had it been before or after the Gates appeared? He couldn't remember. It didn't matter.

_Forget the past_.

"You can ask your questions now," Hei told Kirihara.

"Right," the police chief said, staring at the two of them as if she'd never seen anything stranger. She sat down on the other side of Jiao-tu, and pulled a small recorder from her pocket. "First, we need to confirm her identification."

"Xu Jiao-tu, from Xi'an, China," Hei told her without waiting for Jiao-tu's answer.

A gray-haired man who Hei assumed to be one of Kirihara's subordinates consulted a notebook and nodded.

"And you're in Tokyo to attend school, is that correct?" Jiao-tu nodded. "Which school do you attend?"

"Tokyo Institute of Technology." She managed that in Japanese.

Hei raised his eyebrows. " _Really?_ "

Jiao-tu let go of his arm long enough to punch his shoulder. " _Why do you sound so surprised?_ "

She'd always been smart, Hei remembered, if not particularly motivated. However, she had more determination than anyone he knew. " _I'm not surprised_ ," he told her.

Kirihara looked at him suspiciously when he didn't translate their exchange, but she didn't press him on it.

"Okay. Miss Xu, can you tell us what you were doing in the park this time of night?"

When Hei had ensured that Jiao-tu understood the question, he translated her answer. _"I just wanted someplace quiet to sit and think for a while_."

"Did you know the park was closed?" Kirihara asked.

" _Um, I saw a sign on the gate, but I couldn't read it very well._ " She'd always been a terrible liar. _"Wait, it's not illegal, is it?_ " Jiao-tu asked in alarm.

" _They're not going to arrest you for walking in a park,"_   Hei told her.

"Did you see anyone else in the park when you arrived?" Kirihara asked.

Jiao-tu shook her head. " _No. Not when I first got there, anyway. I sat down against a tree_ " she looked in the direction of the crime scene and gave a little shudder " _and just watched the stars for a while; I think I might have dozed off for a little bit, because all of a sudden I heard voices._ "

"How many voices?" Kirihara asked.

" _Two. Two men. They were talking very quietly, like they didn't want anyone to overhear. I didn't want them to think I was eavesdropping, so I kept quiet and stayed behind the tree._ "

"What where they talking about?"

Jiao-tu shook her head. " _They were speaking English, I couldn't follow it well enough to understand what they were talking about. I think they said something about waiting. I thought they must be there to meet some other people. They also mentioned a flash drive - I know that word._ "

"English? And a flash drive?" Hei saw a furrow form in Kirihara's brow as she concentrated in thought. She'd had the same look in the bathroom stall at the hotel, when she'd been trying to figure out a way to escape her friend. "Hmm. Did the men see you at all?"

" _No, I don't think so. They walked away after a minute, but quietly, like they were trying to sneak by someone._ "

Those must have been the two contractors who'd attacked him for the flash drive, Hei knew. He felt something in his gut clench when he realized just how close Jiao-tu had been to them. They would have killed her outright if she'd been seen.

" _I waited a little while just to make sure they were gone; but just as I was getting ready to get up and leave the park, I heard a crash, or an explosions or something, and then someone screaming_." She shuddered again and tightened her grip on Hei's arm.

"Was it one of the men you'd heard speaking?"

" _I don't know, how can you recognize a voice by a scream?"_ Jiao-tu said petulantly. " _I just know it wasn't a woman. I heard the scream and I stayed on the ground by my tree. Then I heard more crashes; they sounded like they were getting closer, but…but…I couldn't move. I was too scared._ "

The tears were flowing freely down her cheeks. Hei could feel his own voice, as he translated her words, growing colder and more emotionless. He struggled to maintain a 'concerned relative' persona.

" _Then, it got really windy, and branches started falling down around me, but I was still too scared to move. Then I heard another scream, right behind the tree where I was sitting, but it was short like, like…"_

"You don't have to say it," Kirihara told her gently, keeping her gaze fixed on Jiao-tu. Was she avoiding looking at him?

Jiao-tu had been on the other of the tree when he had electrocuted the wind-controlling contractor. Hei felt his blood run cold. He knew what was coming next.

She sniffed, trembling a little. Hei found one of her hands and gave it a squeeze. He remembered Amber doing that sometimes, when she sat down next to him after a particularly bloody mission. He'd always brush her off, but she would just smile, because she knew he really didn't mind. The small gesture of human comfort, feigned though it was, always helped to quiet his mind.

It seemed to help Jiao-tu as well; she squeezed his hand back, and resumed her story.

" _The wind stopped blowing after the scream ended, and at first it was quiet, and I thought maybe it was safe. Then I thought I heard someone moving around, but it was so soft I wasn't sure. I had to hold my hand over my mouth to keep myself from making any sounds._

_"Then out of the corner of my eye I saw this quick flash of light, like a reflection off of metal, but really faint because it was so dark, except for the starlight. At the same time I heard a sound, like a grunt or a gasp, maybe, and I saw - I saw a man, standing just twenty yards away, like he just appeared out of nowhere! And there was a knife sticking out of his chest!"_

Jiao-tu started to shake as the tears poured forth again. She put a hand over her mouth to hold back a sob. Hei extricated his arm from hers and put it around her shoulder, like he remembered doing to comfort his little sister, so long ago. Jiao-tu let him pull her close, crying into his shoulder again.

"You can take a minute," Kirihara told her. The police chief's face looked pale. She was definitely avoiding looking at Hei.

Jiao-tu shook her head. " _If I stop talking about it now, I won't be able to start again._ " She rubbed at her face, trying to wipe away the tears. " _The man with the knife in his chest fell down on his side. I think he was d-dead. Then I saw another man walk up. He - he was scary. All dressed in black. I couldn't see his face well, but it didn't look…real. All white and pale like he was a ghost or an evil spirit or something. He walked up to the dead man, and kicked him so he rolled over onto his back. Then he took the knife out of the man's chest, and turned around and walked away. He never saw me,"_ she added with a relieved shudder.

Saitou gave a low whistle. "Lucky."

Kirihara shot him a glare before turning back to Jiao-tu. "Did anything happen after that?"

Jiao-tu shook her head. " _I was too afraid to even look for my phone and call the police. I thought…I thought if I moved, or stood up, or anything, the man in black would come back and kill me_." She'd stopped crying now, but she buried her face in Hei's shoulder again, seeking comfort. The irony did not escape him.

Nor did it escape Kirihara. She gave Jiao-tu a long look, a mix of compassion and what Hei thought might be anger. She studiously avoided Hei's eyes. "Thank you for telling us what you saw, I know it must be hard. I need to speak with my men; please give us a few minutes."

After setting her recorder on the bench (still turned on, Hei noticed), she stood up and joined her team, far enough away that they could speak quietly without being overheard. Hei kept an eye on them; there was every possibility that the police chief was informing her men that the murderer they were looking for was sitting right in front of them.

But at the moment he didn't really care what she was saying. Hei considered Jiao-tu numbly. She'd seen him kill a man. That she didn't _know_ it was him made no difference. The clash between who she thought he was, who he used to be, and who he was now, was jarring.

" _I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been here, Tian_ ," Jiao-tu said.

" _You would have been fine._ "

" _I was too afraid to even call the police,_ " she said miserably. " _I was a frightened little rabbit. Grandfather would be so ashamed of me._ "

Her words cut into him like a knife. " _No he wouldn't. There's nothing wrong with being afraid. You might have been killed if you had moved or tried anything_. _Even dragons aren't invincible."_

Kirihara finished conferring with her subordinates and returned to the bench. She picked up her recorder and turned it off. "Miss Xu, that's all we need for tonight, although I may have more questions for you later. Here's my card, in case you need to contact me for any reason."

She handed Jiao-tu a business card. Jiao-tu managed a 'thank you' in Japanese. "Do you have anyone who can come pick you up?" Kirihara asked her.

Jiao-tu turned her eyes to Hei. "I can take her home," he said, resigned. "My shift is probably over by now." He didn't want to spend one minute longer with her than he had to, but he couldn't afford to leave her hanging in the wind right now.

"Li, may I speak with you for a moment?" Hei didn't miss the emphasis Kirihara put on the name; nor did he miss the fact that she left her recorder on the bench - apparently she was sticking to their deal. He wasn't sure if he was surprised or not. Kirihara walked off without waiting to see if he was following. She still hadn't looked at him.

" _I'll be right back_ ," he told Jiao-tu. She reluctantly let him go, wrapping her arms around herself instead. Hei looked at her a moment, then took off his jacket and settled it on her shoulders. Jiao-tu gave him a small but grateful smile, and pulled the jacket close.

Kirihara stopped a few yards away, out of earshot of both her team and Jiao-tu. She stood with her arms folded and her gaze on the ground. Hei waited impassively for her to speak, not bothering with any affectation beyond resting his hands in his pockets. The flash drive his contact had given him was still there - he hadn't had a chance to pass it off yet.

"Is she really your cousin?" Kirihara finally asked, raising her eyes to his.

"Yes," he answered, not flinching from her accusing look.

She hesitated before asking the next question. "I hate to ask this, Hei, but I hope that you understand that I have to; it's my job to protect the people in this city. Is she safe with you?"

He felt a touch of irritation. "She is."

Kirihara didn't look convinced, so he added, "She saw nothing. We'll erase the memory of her having recognized me, and that will be the end of it. Just leave my name off of any official records - that would be worse for Jiao-tu than for me."

Kirihara sighed. "That makes sense, I suppose. I just…can't believe she's really your cousin. I mean, no offense, but I know what usually happens to contractor's families."

"You know less than you think," Hei said sharply, taking a step forward. The anger in his voice surprised them both.

"You're probably right; I'm sorry," Kirihara said, her expression softening a little. But then she abruptly turned businesslike again. "I don't suppose you can tell me anything about who those two dead contractors were?"

He gave a noncommittal shrug, his anger not subsiding. He still had Jiao-tu to deal with, the last thing he wanted now was more questions from Kirihara. Did she really expect him to talk about the job? "You probably know more about them than me."

"And the flash drive your cousin heard them talking about? Any idea what that might be, or where it is?"

He met her gaze with equal intensity. "No."

"No?" She leaned forward intently. "You don't have any such thing in your possession?"

Hei had no desire to stand there and argue with her. He took another step forward, threatening her personal space. Eyes still locked on hers, he lowered his voice. "Want to search me?"

She didn't back down from the threat; her eyes were wide, but not from fear. She looked…embarrassed? Hei was suddenly uncomfortably aware of how close they were standing, how dark the park was around them, and felt the heat rising in his own cheeks. He leaned back. "Uh, I didn't mean…"

To his surprise, Kirihara suddenly burst out laughing. "I'm sorry," she said, covering her mouth with her hand. "I shouldn't have asked you about the contractors, I haven't forgotten my promise. And if you say your cousin is safe with you, I believe you. Just don't erase her memory until the investigation is closed, otherwise it'll look suspicious if we need to speak with her again and she has no clue what we're talking about."

Hei stared at her, speechless for the second time that night.

"Well," Kirihara said, "I've got a lot of paperwork to do, no thanks to you, and you should get Miss Xu home." She started to turn away, but paused. "Are you going to be alright?"

"What?" he asked, taken aback.

"With your cousin. I mean, you looked so shocked to see her, I can't imagine…"

"It's fine," Hei said wearily.

Kirihara gave him a long look which he couldn't interpret, then nodded and began walking back to everyone else. Hei watched her go for a moment, then said, "Misaki."

She turned to look at him. He didn't know what he'd meant to say, so he said, "Thanks."


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: For my own sanity, and to cut down on formatting mistakes, assume that dialogue between Hei and Jiao-tu (in this and future chapters) when they're alone is Chinese, unless otherwise specified; if they are speaking Chinese in the presence of others, it will be in italics.

"You're cooking?" Jiao-tu peered suspiciously into the pot. Water dripped from her hair and hissed when it landed on the burner.

"I'm better than I used to be," Hei assured her, gently shooing her out of his way. "Did you get your clothes washed?"

"Mm-hm. I hung them in the bathroom, is that all right?"

Jiao-tu had begged Hei to stay with her that night. The apartment she shared with two roommates was only a few blocks from the park, but he didn't want anyone else to know their connection; so, he took her all the way back to his apartment in Koto.

She'd been tired and miserable by the time they arrived, and so jumped at Hei's offer to shower and wash the dirt off her clothes. He'd given her one of his shirts to wear while her clothes dried; it came all the way down to her knees, and she'd had to roll the sleeves up several times before her hands were free.

Under the brighter lights of his apartment, Jiao-tu didn't look quite as similar to his sister as he'd initially thought: she was a bit shorter, her nose was a little sharper, her eyes were brown instead of blue, and her hair, hitting just below her shoulder blades, was longer than Bai ever wore hers. But she had the same high cheekbones, and those brown eyes were just as big.

"What?" Jiao-tu asked, rubbing at her cheek self-consciously.

Hei realized he'd been staring. "Sorry; you just remind of Xing." That name was almost as strange to him now as Tian was.

"Really?" Jiao-tu gave him a small smile. "I always thought Xing was prettier than me." Then her smile slipped a little. "Where is she?"

Hei felt his mouth tighten as he turned back to the mushroom soup, stirring it a few times. "I don't know."

"What do you mean? She left home with you, didn't she?"

"Yes. But I lost her."

"Lost?" Jiao-tu sounded frightened; Hei realized his voice had gone flat and emotionless again, and he tried to bring some warmth into it.

"We got separated a few years ago, and I'm trying to find her again. It's not something I really want to talk about."

"Do you think she's alright?"

"Who can say." _Amber_.

"Grandfather told me once that he wasn't worried about the two of you. He said Xing would be alright, because you would watch out for her; and you would be alright, because you would never let anything happen to you, not while Xing was depending on you."

Hei turned his back to open the fridge, so she wouldn't see his face. "He was wrong."

"He wasn't wrong - you're still alive, aren't you? We all believed you both were dead, all of us except for him." Jiao-tu leaned her back against the counter, tapping her heel restlessly against the baseboard.

"Dad found Aunt and Uncle the day after it happened. You and Xing hadn't shown up for school, and no one was answering the phone at your house. The two of you were gone." She paused, looking at him, probably expecting him to fill in the blanks. Hei focused on slicing a beef steak, and stayed silent.

"The police said it was a kidnapping, though they couldn't explain how Aunt and Uncle died. They looked for about two weeks, then said there were no leads and so the case was closed. Grandfather was furious; he hired a private investigator, then another, then another. No one could find you.

"I think it was about four months later, some men from the government showed up. They said you'd both been found dead in a slum on the other side of the city, and they brought two urns of ashes. Dad said at least now we could mourn and move on; Grandmother cried for weeks.

"Grandfather never believed it though. He said that it must be a cover up. If you were really dead, they would have brought bodies, not ashes, and they wouldn't be so insistent that he stop looking for you."

"A cover up of what?" Hei said, pushing the image of his grandmother in tears because of him from his mind.

Jiao-tu shrugged. "Aunt and Uncle died just days after the Gates appeared, and no one could explain how. There were lots of stories about people acting strangely, or disappearing, and impossible things happening all over the world around that time, but after a few weeks the government started putting a stop to the stories.

"Grandfather thought you must have seen something, whatever it was that killed Aunt and Uncle, and so you had to hide, or else the government wanted to keep you quiet. They told us you and Xing were dead, so we'd stop looking and not find out what it was you saw. He's never been able to discover exactly what the reason was.

"That's why I decided to try for a scholarship to Tokodai, instead of going to school closer to home - the Gate is here in Tokyo, and a lot of people at Tokodai are working on Gate-related research, in conjunction with Pandora or separately. I thought…if I came here, and learned more about the Gate, maybe I could understand what happened to Aunt and Uncle, and you and Xing."

Hei paused to wipe his brow. It was hot, leaning over the stove. And Jiao-tu's story was reminding him uncomfortably of the woman who'd lived next door.

"And I think I've figured out what happened. It was a contractor."

Hei stopped slicing; his knuckles were white on the handle of the knife. "What?"

Jiao-tu gazed pensively at her feet. "All the Gate research is classified, but that doesn't stop the rumors from getting out among us students. One of the most popular rumors is contractors - people who were changed by the Gate, and now have special abilities. Abilities that would allow them to kill someone without leaving a mark…or cause a random windstorm in the park."

She rubbed her arms as if warding off a chill, even though the room was plenty warm. "The man I - I saw get stabbed, I think he was invisible, I swear he hadn't been standing there before the knife hit him. I wonder if the man who killed him was a contractor too. Do you think I should have told the police? I didn't know if they would think I was crazy or not."

Hei carefully set his knife down on the counter. "You can't talk about contractors, Jiao-tu. No one is supposed to know they exist."

"But you do, right? That's what happened…to your parents?" Her eyes were starting to tear up again.

"Yes, that's what happened," Hei said, looking away from her. "That's why Xing and I had to leave. You could all have been killed too if we stayed."

"Were you ever going to come back home?" she asked in a quiet voice.

"Not without Xing." And he would never have Xing back, he knew. Bai was the best he could hope for. "The food is almost ready - go pull out the table, Xiao-tu."

Jiao-tu punched his arm lightly. "I told you, no one calls me 'Xiao' anymore."

"You're still littler than me, so I'll still call you 'Xiao'," he told her. "Now go pull the table out."

She gave him a real smile then, and went to do as he asked. Her smile grew when she saw the amount of food he brought over. "I was starting to think you were an imposter, but now I know you must be Tian."

"Why would you think I'm not me?" Hei settled on the floor across from her.

"Because I haven't seen you smile once. It's like you're not even happy to see me," Jiao-tu said.

"I'm sorry, it's just…been a very long night. I guess it hasn't really sunk in that you're actually here," Hei told her truthfully, forcing a half smile onto his face.

"Yeah, me too. I heard them talking about getting a translator, but I never thought it would be you. I don't think I would have recognized you, except I was thinking about you and Xing earlier."

She watched him ladle out the soup. "Remember how you and Jiang used to have contests to see who could eat the most bowls of rice, or the most pot stickers?"

"I remember."

"And when Grandmother bought all those Sichuan peppers, and - hey, this soup is really good!" The food seemed to be doing more for her spirits than the shower had.

"Does your brother still eat so much?" he asked. The memories that Jiao-tu's reminiscing was stirring up were dull and hazy, as if he'd seen them on television or in a dream - like they belonged to someone else. He didn't want to keep her talking about the past, but it was better than her asking questions of him.

Jiao-tu giggled, her laugh lower and not quite as girlish as he remembered. "Yes. Mom says he's lucky Song wants to be a stay at home wife, or else she'd never have enough time to cook all his food." Jiao-tu frowned. "But if you can cook, I'd think that idiot could manage too - Song shouldn't have to do it all by herself."

"Song?"

"Mi Song - you remember her." Jiao-tu finished her soup, and moved on to beef and rice. "She was in your class, and used to follow you guys to school every day. She and Jiang are engaged now. They're waiting to have the wedding until next summer, so I can come home for it." Her eyes lit up. "Tian, you'll be able to come too!"

Hei dropped his eyes to his bowl and focused on eating. He was going to have to tell her at some point; unfortunately, Kirihara had been right about it being smart to wait a few to erase her memory of having run into him.

"I have a picture of them, hang on." Jiao-tu abandoned her food and pulled her book bag over, rooting around in it. "Where's my phone? I know I put it in here earlier. Say, what about you, Tian?"

"What about me?"

Jiao-tu looked up from her bag and gazed around the empty apartment, frowning. "I'm guessing you don't bring many girls back here."

"I haven't been here for very long. Finish your food before it gets cold."

Jiao-tu dug around in her bag for a few more minutes before she gave up and returned to her meal. She spent more time talking than eating, but Hei saw the strain in her eyes and thought she must be trying to distract herself from the events of earlier in the evening.

"You never told me what you're doing in Japan," she said when they had finished eating.

Hei couldn't use his cover story, that he was going to school; she'd see through the lie easily. Instead, he told her the truth, or at least a version of it. "I'm looking for my sister."

"You think she's in Tokyo?"

"No. But I think answers are." Amber was in the city, after all.

"Tian, your face is getting scary."

"Sorry." Hei stood to start carrying dishes back to the kitchen, but Jiao-tu beat him to it, stacking as many bowls as would fit in her arms.

"Did you ask that police woman for help looking for Xing?" Jiao-tu asked as she dumped the dishes into the sink. "Is that how you two know each other?"

"Kirihara? No. The police don't know anything about it."

There was a little bit of soup left; he had expected to have more, but Jiao-tu ate quite a bit for someone her size. Hei took out a small glass storage container, the only one he owned, and poured the soup into it.

"Oh. How do you know her then? You seemed pretty friendly."

"We've run into each other a few times, is all."

"Hm. She was really nice. I bet she'd look beautiful in a dress, instead of such a plain suit."

"She does." Kirihara had been wearing a red qipao the first time he'd seen her, Hei remembered. He wouldn't have noticed her, just another pretty woman in a room full of pretty women, except she'd looked so out of place, standing off on her own and squinting at everybody despite being friends with the owner's daughter. After talking to Saitou, Hei had decided she must be police, and kept an eye on her.

He hadn't realized how truly beautiful she was until they were hiding together in the bathroom stall; her dress was torn and her hair was coming undone, but she'd worn a look of such fierce determination, despite the revelation of her friend's betrayal.

She'd had that same look the night Huang had caught her, and Hei had arrived to see her sitting on the ratty sofa, her suit stained with dirty rain water. She thought she was about to die, but she didn't cry or beg, just looked him in the eye and dared him to do it. "She looks better in her business suits though."

He looked up when Jiao-tu didn't answer, to see her grinning at him. "I was looking for a dish towel, and I found this." She was holding Kirihara's business card. "Is that her personal number on the back?"

Hei took the card from her hand and dropped it into the trash can. "That was from a police investigation months ago, when the woman in the apartment next door went missing."

"Oh," Jiao-tu said, clearly disappointed by his lack of reaction. Hei remembered belatedly that she used to tease him about the girls in his class all the time. He didn't think he could handle that now.

"I'm sorry, Xiao-tu. It's been a long night. The apartment next door is still empty; I'll borrow the futon from there for you to sleep on." He opened the door and walked out, leaving her standing alone in the kitchen, drowning in her borrowed shirt like a lost little girl.


	8. Chapter 8

"They're home," Hei said quietly, walking up to lean against the fence next to his sister. "Watching TV in the living room."

Bai stared intently at the house down the street. Despite her Japanese middle school uniform and pig-tailed hair, she looked out of place; she hadn't quite mastered passing for a normal human. Hei had initially been against her idea of taking out a streetlight - though she was much better at regulating her payments than she had been a year ago, it was still risky for her to expend any power so early in the mission - but now he was glad of the shadows that hid them from the casual observer.

"We should go now, while they're occupied," she said, and started to head towards the house. She stopped when she saw that Hei wasn't following. "Brother, what's wrong?"

"The daughter."

"Is she home? She was supposed to be staying over at a friend's house." Bai said the word 'friend' as if she'd never heard it before.

"I didn't see her in the house," Hei admitted. "But we didn't see her leave either. What if she's still there?"

"You kill her while I kill the Shinoda couple," Bai said matter-of-factly.

But Hei was still hesitant. "If she's there, I think we should wait for a better opportunity."

"We won't know until we go in; and once we go in, we should finish the assignment. That's the logical thing to do." Bai regarded Hei with an expression he couldn't read. "She's only a teenager, she should be easy to deal with."

Only a teenager…Bai's tenth birthday had been three days ago. Hei hadn't brought it up; he knew that she would only say that celebrating birthdays was irrational. He hated it when Bai started talking about logic and rationality. But she was right - killing the daughter would be the rational thing to do, if he wanted to keep Bai safe. If he failed to follow through on their first field mission, the Syndicate would separate them. He couldn't leave her on her own.

_Emotions are useless distractions_. The words had become sort of a mantra for him in the past year, that he clung to like a drowning boy clinging to a piece of driftwood.

"Alright," he said. "I'll pick the lock on the back door; you take out the lights as soon as we're in. Careful you don't use too much power killing them, it'll be harder to run if I have to carry you -"

"I know," Bai said, walking calmly towards the back of the Shinoda house. "We both know the plan, there's no reason to go over it again."

Hei caught up with her. She was cool and collected, no different than she was during training, while Hei could feel his hands shaking from adrenaline already. His dagger, concealed beneath the jacket of his school uniform, pressed uncomfortably against his ribs. He focused on his breathing and ran through the plan and all possible contingencies in his mind for the hundredth time, and by the time they reached the door, he was as steady as she was.

Bai killed the couple quickly and silently. The man, surprised by the sudden blackout, was first, just like they'd planned. The woman was dead before she could even comprehend what had happened to her husband. They saw no sign of the daughter.

When it was done, Hei led his sister back out of the house and down the street, walking briskly but not so fast as to draw attention from any curious neighbors. Just two school kids on their way home for dinner. He thought he could still feel the tingle of electricity in her hand, but knew it was just his imagination.

Their handler had a car waiting around the corner. Bai was asleep almost as soon as they climbed into the backseat. Hei pulled his sister against his chest and held onto her protectively. Only once they were on the highway headed out of Kyoto did he allow himself to relax and feel the guilt of what they'd done, closing his eyes and resting his head against the window.

"You knew I was in the house the whole time, didn't you?"

Hei opened his eyes. A brown-haired girl in a high school uniform, a year or two older than himself, was sitting on the seat beside him, staring out her window with her chin resting in her hand.

"Of course not," he told her, closing his eyes again. "I would have killed you if I'd known."

"Hm, maybe that's true," she said. "Then again, contractors are liars - you told me that yourself, and you were right. You're such a good liar, you even believe your own lies."

"What lies?"

"How should I know? You killed me."

Hei shook his head. "I didn't, remember?"

The girl only shrugged, watching the dark landscape rush by as the car sped down the highway. "I'm dead now, because you didn't kill me then. It's all the same. You let your emotions get involved."

"I don't have emotions," he told her.

"Then what's she doing here?"

Hei looked down at his sister, to find that it was no longer Bai in his arms, but his cousin. She was sleeping fitfully, a frown on her face. "I don't know."

"Such a liar."

Hei woke with a start. It took him a moment to realize that he wasn't in a car, but had fallen asleep sitting against the wall in his apartment. The sun was just beginning to rise over the wall of the Gate to the east, and the room was still shadowed. Jiao-tu was across the room, sleeping on the futon from Shinoda Chiaki's former apartment. Hei's futon was next to her, unslept in.

He hadn't been thinking straight, bringing her back here - he should have taken her directly to Huang to have the Syndicate erase her memory of running into him. So what if the police realized her memory had been tampered with? Kirihara already knew why that would be necessary, and apparently didn't have a problem with it.

His life used to be so simple. He did his job, he didn't get involved with other people unless it was necessary for the mission, and even then it was always under an alias and a false persona. How had things gotten so complicated?

Jiao-tu mumbled something incomprehensible and rolled over in her sleep, the blanket tangling around her legs. Bai had always slept as still and unmoving as a corpse; sometimes only the shallow expansion of her ribcage as she breathed assured Hei that she was even alive. He was never sure that she would wake at all after her payments.

Jiao-tu made another noise, that sounded almost like a cry. Hei stood and stretched his neck until it popped - sleeping sitting up hadn't been the brightest idea - then walked over to her side and put a hand on her shoulder. He had to shake her almost roughly before she woke.

"Tian?" she mumbled sleepily.

"Yes. Sorry. It sounded like you were having a bad dream."

"Mm. I dreamed the man in black, the one from the park, was chasing me." She sat up, yawning. "Ugh. It's so early."

"It's not that early. Get dressed, I'll make you breakfast."

"Hm. Hey Tian, is that cat yours?"

Hei looked up; Mao was sitting in the window looking at them with an expression that would have been amusement, if cats could look amused. "No," Hei said, casting Mao a dark glance. "Just a stray. I'd better get that futon back before my landlady notices it's missing."

He left Jiao-tu to get dressed, and, with a significant look at the cat, exited his apartment for the one next door. He opened the window and Mao hopped inside.

"Well, this isn't something I thought I'd ever see," Mao said. "The Black Reaper, inviting a girl back to his place? I know this is probably a foreign concept to you, but usually when a man and a woman have a sleepover, there are fewer clothes involved, and only one bed."

Hei stowed the bedding away in a closet and ignored the cat's comment. Mao wouldn't report anything to Huang, as long as Hei stayed on task. "I have the item." He pulled the flash drive from his pocket; he was still wearing his waiter's uniform from the night before.

"What? Oh, the item." Mao sounded a little disappointed that he wasn't going to get an explanation; but if he had expected one, he didn't know Hei very well. "Huang's instructions are to drop it off with Yin; Huang will pick it up later. I can't be seen running around with that in broad daylight, it's too risky. We still don't know who those contractors last night were working for; there could still be someone coming after it."

"What about our contact?"

"Took off as soon as the contractors attacked; I lost him when he got into a car. Hopefully we won't need to deal with him again, but Yin is monitoring his office just in case." Mao jumped onto the windowsill. "Is this visitor of yours going to be a problem?"

Hei just looked at him.

"I'm just asking," the cat said. "You haven't been very focused lately."

"If you're talking about Chief Kirihara, I'm not the one who let her follow me to the safe house."

Mao snorted. "That's true. And I admit, killing the chief of Section 4 probably wouldn't have been the best idea - wiping her memory was more prudent. Still, watch yourself." Mao turned to go, then let out a curse and jumped back into the room.

"What is it?" Hei moved to the side of the window, suddenly alert.

"Your landlady," Mao muttered, crouching under the sill. "What's she doing up so early?"

It was Hei's turn to snort. "You've faced how many dangerous contractors in this city, yet one little old lady with a broom…"

"Shut up."

~~~~o~~~~

Misaki swam almost every morning before work. It was her way of meditating. By focusing on the timing of her breaths and the form of her strokes, she could push away all her work-related thoughts and stress and give her mind a break. This morning she was in the pool even earlier than usual; she'd hardly been able to sleep at all for thinking about her run-in with Hei. But so far, swimming wasn't helping.

She just couldn't figure him out. She'd been almost angry when he first showed up in the park (once she'd gotten over her initial jolt of surprise at seeing him so unexpectedly), smiling innocently despite having just murdered two men, and not caring that she knew it. That anger had helped to remind her that he wasn't really the man she'd known as Li. Contractors were liars - she couldn't let herself forget that.

So knowing that he was a liar, and an especially good one at that - what was she to make of the witness, Xu? Was she really his cousin? A girl just happened to witness BK-201's activity without him seeing her, and she just happened to be his long-lost relative?

On the surface, it was completely ridiculous, too unlikely to be just a coincidence. Yet…he had seemed genuinely shocked to see Xu there.

Of course, Misaki thought as she pushed off from the wall for another lap, just because Hei was shocked to see the young woman didn't mean she was actually his cousin. She could be an operative that he recognized, from his own organization or another, and calling her his cousin was some sort of code. Misaki itched to get her hands on a transcript of their conversation; Kouno was taking the recording over to the Chinese Embassy as soon as it opened.

She wished she knew who Hei was working for. Given that he was Chinese (she was pretty sure he was, anyway), and that the code names for his team were all Chinese, she had briefly entertained the idea that he was employed by the Chinese Ministry of State Security.

But that didn't fit. The MSS was notoriously poorly organized, and the thought of them employing an elite contractor like BK-201 was almost laughable. Despite her promise to Hei to voluntarily forget what she saw that night, she had gone into Section 4's archives and found the report on Huang's former partner's murder and discovered his real name: Kuno Kiyoshi. Which didn't tell her anything useful; it would make sense for any intelligence organization to recruit a Japanese citizen for operations in Japan. And any further investigation into him would surely tip them off that she knew more than she should.

But now a young Chinese woman with connections to Hei had shown up… _Was_ Xu really his cousin? He had acted brotherly toward her - putting his arm around her when she was upset, giving her his jacket… Misaki had been a little jealous watching them leave the park together, Xu's arms wrapped around his.

Interestingly, Hei's 'Li' act had definitely slipped while he was translating - the more frightened the girl sounded, the less emotion Misaki heard in his voice, as if he was closing himself off to her fear. That was how he had acted in the presence of his team, when they had caught KV-464: cold and emotionless. It was only when he and Misaki had been alone that his guard had dropped a bit, and she saw hints of actual emotion and humanity.

Had she seen that in the park last night? Misaki completed three full laps while she pondered the question. His surprise at seeing Xu had seemed genuine…but that was a reaction, not an emotion. And it was easy to feign emotion with actions, like giving the girl his coat.

He'd been pretending at humanity when he first arrived, then retreated into his guarded contractor personality during Xu's story - but he _had_ displayed signs of true emotion when she'd been speaking alone with him. It had been subtle, but he had gotten genuinely angry when she was questioning him about the dead contractors.

No…he'd been angry before that. When she asked whether or not his cousin would be safe with him. It was the same sort of reaction he'd had when she had asked him about Yin, before she realized he was BK-201. Whoever Xu was, they did have a personal connection. He cared about her; that's why Misaki had believed him when he claimed the girl would be safe in his company.

It was so strange, Misaki mused. She paused at the edge of the pool to adjust her goggles before starting another set of laps. He hadn't been warning her to back off her questions about the men he had killed; like with Yin, he had wanted to protect someone. She _should_ have felt threatened: the Black Reaper had been angry with her, could and would have killed her easily if he decided it was necessary - but instead of feeling afraid, she had been turned on.

_That_ sudden thought caused her to miss-time her breath, and she swallowed a mouthful of water. Misaki halted in the middle of the pool, coughing as the chlorine stung her throat. What the hell was wrong with her? He was a contractor, a remorseless killer who pretended to comfort a girl that _he_ had terrified in the first place. One or two misplaced human emotions did not negate the rest of his character.

He clearly hadn't been trying to flirt with her…but he had flirted, hadn't he? And he'd realized it - or else he wouldn't have suddenly been so embarrassed. That was why she had laughed; BK-201 had been _embarrassed_.

He must think she was out of her mind. She was out of her mind.

Deciding she was only going to end up drowning herself if she stayed in the pool with this train of thought, Misaki climbed out and headed back to the locker room to shower.

~~~~o~~~~

"Wow, you have such a great view!"

Hei looked up from his breakfast. Jiao-tu was leaning out the window, bowl of noodles forgotten in her hands.

"There's nothing out there," Hei told her.

"There's the Gate - it's so big!"

"That's not the Gate, just the wall around it."

"It's the same thing," Jiao-tu said, walking back over to the table. "Mom didn't want me coming to Tokyo at all; she thought it would be too dangerous, with the Gate here. But I've been here over a year, and nothing's happened. Well," she corrected herself, "nothing happened until last night. But that had nothing to do with the Gate."

"You remember what I told you last night?" Hei said, letting a serious note enter his voice. "You can't talk about what happened in the park, not to anyone. It won't be safe for you."

"I know, I won't," she promised. "I don't really want to talk about it anyway." Jiao-tu finished her egg and noodles, then sat down against the wall, pulled her book bag over, and upended it onto the floor.

"What are you doing?" Hei asked, watching her sort through a pile of papers, folders, pens, and makeup.

"Looking for my phone. I couldn't find it last night…and I still don't see it here."

Hei stood and started clearing the breakfast dishes. "When was the last time you saw it?"

"Um…I texted Mei-li before I went to Iwakara's office. Oh, that's right, I dropped my bag outside his office, and my phone fell out - but Arakawa picked it up for me." She sighed dreamily.

"Who's Arakawa?"

Jiao-tu laughed. "Don't look at me like that; you look like Jiang! I'm not ten years old anymore, I can think about boys if I want." She gave him a sly grin. "I can even -"

"Did you see your phone after that?" Hei interrupted.

"Um, I put it back in my bag; I went to the park right after that, and I didn't even try to look for it after…after what I saw, because I was too scared. Stupid rabbit," she muttered to herself.

"You probably dropped it in the park," Hei told her. "The police will have found it."

"Hm, you're probably right." Jiao-tu began gathering up her things and stuffing them back into her bag. "Can I use your phone then? I have the studio number memorized, I'll pay you back for the international call charges. We could Skype, but I left my tablet at home, and I'm guessing you don't have WiFi here."

"Studio?"

"The kung fu studio - Grandfather supposedly retired last year, we had a huge party and everything, but he's still there every day, it drives Dad crazy. It's early, but I'm sure he's already there; you know how he is."

Hei felt a knot forming in the pit of his stomach. "Jiao-tu, I don't want you telling anyone you've seen me."

She stared at him blankly. "What do you mean? Tian, everyone thinks you're _dead!_ They'll be so happy to know you're alive - especially Grandfather! Don't you want to talk to him?"

"If I wanted to talk to him, I could call anytime; I still know the number too." He did, he realized; he'd thought that he'd forgotten italong with everything else.

"But, Tian -"

"No!" He hadn't meant to speak so sharply; Jiao-tu recoiled as though she'd been slapped. He sighed, and slid down the wall to sit next to her on the floor, so he didn't appear as threatening, and fished for an excuse.

"I just…I don't know what to tell him about my sister. I don't want him to think that I failed. That I couldn't protect her."

Jiao-tu's expression softened, and she wrapped her arms around his neck in a warm hug. "He'll understand; it would mean so much for him to know you're okay."

Hei returned the hug with one arm. "Give me a few days, alright? Then we'll call together." _Tonight_ , he decided, _after she gets her phone back from the police. I'll take her to Huang to have her memory erased. If Kirihara wants more time for her investigation, too bad._


	9. Chapter 9

"According to the Interpol Contractor Database, SY-573 was a Chinese national who operated under the purview of the Chinese Ministry of State Security," Saitou said, pointing to the white board, where a photo taken off a bank security camera was pinned next to a photo of one of the dead contractors taken in the morgue. Both photos showed a man with East Asian features. "Alias 'Feng'."

Misaki frowned. "MSS? You're sure?"

Saitou nodded. "We don't have any intel on TX-788." He pointed to the other photo on the board, this one of a Caucasian man lying on the medical examiner's table. "But according to Ootsuka's analysis, his activity frequently correlated with SY-573 over the past two years, suggesting that they were long-standing partners."

Misaki stared down at the conference table, thinking. Well, if Hei had killed them, it was even less likely that _he_ worked for MSS.

"Huh," Kouno said. "Chinese spies…and our witness is Chinese too? Is that a coincidence?"

"Her credentials checked out," Matsumoto offered. "She's in enrolled in her third semester at Tokyo Institute of Technology, a participant in the LAOTSE exchange program."

"Did you talk to any of her professors or fellow students?" Misaki asked. "It wouldn't be too hard to ghost an enrollment." If she knew which school he supposedly attended, Misaki was sure that Li Shengshun's records would show that he was a hardworking student with a moderate course load and average grades who never missed a class - and that no one on campus would be able to tell her what he looked like.

"Not yet."

"Hm…it wouldn't make any sense for her to be hanging around at the crime scene after the fact. Nothing we found at the scene contradicted her story. I'm inclined to believe she has nothing to do with it." _Unless she stayed to meet with Hei? No, she couldn't have known that Saitou would bring him to help translate._ "Kouno, did you get the transcript?"

"Here." Kouno passed out copies, a few pages stapled together. "I read through it already - Li did a pretty decent job of translating; there's nothing relevant to the case here that he didn't tell us."

Misaki resisted reading it right away. She could trust her subordinate. After the briefing, she would comb through it looking for finer nuances and details on her own. "Alright. Back to MSS. I don't recall any incidences involving them here in Tokyo in the past few years - and now two MSS-employed contractors appear? What else do we know about the agency?"

Saitou glanced down at his notes. "Not much. China doesn't have much of a presence in the global intelligence community anymore - they never recovered from the South American conflict. Most of their contractor-related operations appear to be domestic or else focused on counterintelligence - keeping an eye on Chinese communities abroad, that sort of thing. And they mostly depend on normal humans for that."

"So they don't have many contractors abroad, none that we know of in Japan, but they brought two in for this meeting in the park. Why?"

Kouno had been flipping through the transcript of Xu's story. "The witness heard two men talking about waiting, and a flash drive. We're assuming those two men were SY-573 and TX-788. They were speaking English…because TX-788 was European or American, and presumably didn't know Chinese?"

"That's logical," Misaki said.

"The important thing here is the flash drive," Kouno continued. "Was it something they had, or something they wanted?"

Matsumoto spoke up. "The way Miss Xu described the incident, it sounds like the MSS agents were waiting there to ambush BK-201. If that's the case, then he already had it in his possession, and they wanted to take it."

Misaki was ninety-nine percent sure that the flash drive _had_ been on his person when she'd spoken with him last night, and he'd dared her to search him. _You're not in control here, I am_ , is what his body language had been telling her. She bit her lip to keep herself from blushing. By now, chances were that he had already passed it on to someone else in his organization.

"Then where did he get it, and what was he doing wandering around in the park with it?" Kouno asked.

"We're still missing an important piece of the puzzle here," Misaki said, trying to banish thoughts of Hei from her mind. "Keep your eyes and ears open. I want to know what was on that flash drive, and what it has to do with BK-201 and the organization he works for. If that's everything -"

"Ah, one more thing," Matsumoto said. "We found two cell phones in the park: one is a Chinese model, the other Japanese."

Misaki sat up a little straighter. "Does the Chinese one belong to one of the MSS agents?"

"Uh, probably not. It's purple," the older man explained, grimacing. "Most likely it belongs to the witness. The tech guys are looking it over, just in case. The other phone probably did belong to one of our dead contractors - it's a cheap prepaid model, likely used as a burner."

"Hm." Misaki drummed her fingers on the table. "Let me know right away if they find anything."

~~~~o~~~~

Jiao-tu's last class of the day was Professor Iwakara's. She scanned the already crowded lecture hall for her roommate. Long Mei-li was easy to spot - her bright red eyeglasses stood out in the sea of otherwise male faces. Mei-li moved her book bag from the seat next to her as Jiao-tu hurried over.

" _Where have you been?_ " The other girl whispered in Chinese as Jiao-tu sat down. " _You could have called us if you were going to stay out all night - I almost called the police._ "

" _Liang never calls,"_ Jiao-tu retorted.

Mei-li just rolled her eyes. " _That's Liang. You're you._ "

Jiao-tu pulled her notebook out of her bag. " _Sorry. I couldn't call - I lost my phone._ " Actually, she hadn't even thought to call her roommates and let them know she was okay; the events in the park and running into Tian had superseded any mundane concerns she might have had last night.

" _Oh no! My parents would kill me if I lost mine - and yours is a lot nicer too. Do you know where you lost it?_ "

Jiao-tu shrugged. _"Maybe_. _I'm going to look after class._ "

" _So…_ " Mei-li began, drawing the word out.

Jiao-tu pretended not to hear her over the drone of fifty different conversations. She still hadn't figured out what she was going to tell Mei-li and Liang about where she had been. For some reason that she didn't understand, she had promised Tian that she wouldn't tell anyone, even strangers to him like her roommates, that he was in the city.

It was weird, how secretive and almost paranoid he was. She was sure he was friends with that police woman, but he refused to talk about her. He had acted like his old friendly self with his landlady, who had been sweeping the sidewalk when they left for the train station that morning; but Jiao-tu had gotten the impression that it was only a superficial friendliness.

And then there was that girl at the tobacco shop - Tian obviously knew her well, because he'd brought her the bowl of soup that had been left over from last night, and the girl had acted like that was a regular occurrence. But he had only introduced them after Jiao-tu had asked, and even then it was only to say "Jiao-tu, this is Yin. Yin, this is Jiao-tu" before continuing on to the station and leaving Jiao-tu to run after him.

Fortunately, she was saved from answering Mei-li by the entrance of Arakawa into the lecture hall. Instead of taking his usual seat in the front row, Arakawa turned on the overhead projector and powered up Iwakara's lecture.

" _Eh?_ " Mei-li asked. " _Where's Iwakara_?"

"Damn, what happened to his eye?" the guy sitting next to Jiao-tu said. Mei-li and Jiao-tu both gasped. Arakawa's left eye was purple and swollen shut.

"He was fine last night," Jiao-tu said.

Her neighbor raised an eyebrow suggestively. "Last night?"

She punched his shoulder. "At Iwakara's office hours, Tanaka-pervert."

The noise in the room had risen considerably as students noticed Arakawa's black eye, but settled down when he began the lecture. He didn't explain Iwakara's absence, except to say that the professor was indisposed.

" _He can stay indisposed_ ," Mei-li whispered, leaning forward on her desk, eyes glued to Arakawa. Jiao-tu nodded in agreement.

~~~~o~~~~

" _I never thought wave functions could be so sexy,_ " Mei-li sighed as they filed out of the lecture hall.

" _Wave functions are always sexy. Can I borrow your phone_?"

Mei-li rolled her eyes, but pulled her phone from her pocket. " _God, you are such a nerd. Here - but hurry, I've got my biology lab. Who are you calling?_ "

Jiao-tu took the phone. The screen was cracked and almost impossible to read, but she didn't say anything; she knew Mei-li couldn't afford a new phone, and she was touchy about things like that. Jiao-tu moved to the edge of the hallway and squatted down to dig through her bag. She found what she was looking for at the very bottom, buried in a mess of receipts, gum wrappers, and other detritus. " _The police_."

~~~~o~~~~

Misaki uncapped her pen and underlined a couple of lines in the transcript. Kouno had been right; Hei's translation of Xu's explanation of events in the park had been accurate. He'd even mentioned the flash drive, which made Misaki wonder whether it was as important as they thought. Then again, since the police didn't actually have the flash drive and had no idea what was on it or why it was important, knowing that it existed really didn't help.

He'd left nothing out except for a couple of personal exchanges with his cousin. Those lines were what Misaki focused on. On the surface, the words were innocuous - but was there a hidden meaning? A code that only certain operatives would recognize? She was almost sure that Xu really was Hei's cousin just based on his reactions, but Kouno had been right - it _was_ suspicious that their only witness to an incident involving Chinese intelligence agents was a Chinese exchange student…who had a personal connection to BK-201.

First, Xu had asked Hei why he was surprised to hear that she attended Tokyo Institute of Technology, and he had responded that he wasn't surprised. Could this be a reference to the reason Xu was in Tokyo? Was "attending Tokodai" code for a certain type of mission? …Or did he just not expect his cousin to be studying abroad at a prestigious school like that?

Misaki tapped her pen on the desk. The next lines were a little more suspicious - Xu wondered if it was illegal to be in the park after closing time, and Hei assured her that she wouldn't be arrested for it. Misaki could easily believe that Xu was in fact asking whether the police had any reason to suspect her (or Hei's) involvement in the incident, and he was telling her that it was safe to talk. That was plausible, but by no means definitive.

Misaki turned to the last page of the transcript.

Xu: " _I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been here, Tian_."

Had Xu been there to meet with the MSS agents? Things got out of hand, and they would have killed her if Hei hadn't happened to be nearby? No, he had been too surprised to see her when Saitou brought him back to the park. If Xu had been meeting with the contractors, surely Hei would have noticed her, and talked to her before the police showed up. Matsumoto's suggestion, that the MSS agents had been there to ambush BK-201, still made the most sense. Xu had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and she was grateful that her cousin was there to comfort her; that's all.

_Tian._ Was it another code name or alias? Or…was that Hei's real name? Misaki felt a small thrill run through her at the thought. The translator had left a footnote: 'Tian' in Mandarin meant 'sky'. She smiled to herself. The name fit Li's personality - open, pure, honest. Then she remembered that Li wasn't real, and her smile vanished.

The last lines were the most puzzling.

Xu: " _I was too afraid to even call the police. I was a frightened little rabbit. Grandfather would be so ashamed of me._ "

Li: " _No he wouldn't. There's nothing wrong with being afraid. You might have been killed if you had moved or tried anything_. _Even dragons aren't invincible."_

Misaki took her pen and drew two lines under the words 'rabbit', 'grandfather', and 'dragon'. 'Grandfather' could be referring to her actual grandfather; but it could also be code for a superior in their organization. She had failed in her mission, and the higher ups were going to be displeased. Misaki supposed Xu calling herself a frightened rabbit made sense, as terrified as she had been, but why had Hei mentioned dragons? That didn't seem to fit the context of their conversation or the situation at all.

She sighed to herself and flipped back to the beginning of the transcript. Maybe one more reading would help. She was halfway through when Matsumoto and Kouno interrupted her. Kouno carried a stack of papers half an inch thick, while Matsumoto held just one sheet.

"This is what we pulled off the phones," the younger man said. "The purple one definitely belongs to Xu: it's full of pictures, music files, and texts. Typical college girl stuff - nothing incriminating." He handed his stack of papers to Misaki, and she leafed through the pages. The first half of the stack was all photos, Xu herself appearing in many of them.

"She's pretty cute," Kouno commented.

Matsumoto smacked the back of his head. "Knock it off; she's a witness to a serious crime."

_And the Black Reaper's cousin_. Pages of texts were beneath the photos. "Half of these are in Chinese," Misaki said.

"I can stop by the Embassy again," Kouno said, rubbing his head.

"Damn, the Embassy." Misaki rubbed her temples. Her subordinates caught her meaning right away.

"Ah," said Kouno. "If MSS is involved in this…"

"We can't tip off the Chinese," Matsumoto finished.

"Hm. It might not be worth the effort anyway, since it looks like Xu isn't involved at all. What's this?" Misaki pulled out several pages that were covered in what looked like gibberish - it wasn't any sort of language or alphabet that she recognized.

Kouno shrugged. "The techies said it's meaningless - probably from a corrupt file that she downloaded accidentally."

Misaki replaced the pages in the stack. "Alright. What about the other phone?"

Matsumoto handed over his piece of paper. "Definitely a burner. No numbers in the contacts list. No calls sent or received. Only one text, received yesterday at 18:07, from another prepaid phone which is now out of service."

Misaki read the single line. It was in English:

_Park near Tokodai. Look for drinking fountain. -Dragon_.

"This looks like instructions to the MSS agents on where to find BK-201," Kouno said. "Pretty vague though."

"Not if they were using a doll," Matsumoto said. "There was a drinking fountain that was destroyed during the fight in the park. Maybe the flash drive was hidden there?"

Misaki didn't care about the drinking fountain. She was focused on one word. "Dragon?"

"A code name," Kouno said. "But for who?"

"That's the question," Misaki mused. _Even dragons aren't invincible_. It was a tenuous connection at best, but it was there. It just wasn't enough to take to the director or involve the rest of her team, not without compromising Hei. _Damn it_. She was beginning to regret her deal with him.

She dismissed her subordinates, and started on the stack of papers from Xu's phone, setting aside the texts for now and beginning with the pictures. She didn't expect to find anything, not if "Dragon" had been communicating with the MSS agents via disposable phones, but it was worth a look.

Most of the pictures were of the same group of friends in various locations around Tokyo, but a few looked to have been taken in China. One photo in particular stood out to her. It showed an older man, in his sixties probably, standing with his arms around Xu and a young man who looked a little older than Xu. The three were obviously related - Xu's grandfather, perhaps, and her brother or another cousin? The young man was of stockier build than Hei, but the lines of his face were the same. And the older man…take away the laugh lines, liver spots, and a few decades, add a couple of inches of height, and she could easily imagine 'Li' posing there with them, smiling wide.

They were standing in front of a paneled wall that was decorated in photographs. Judging from the uniforms of the people in the photos, Misaki thought that they might have been taken at martial arts tournaments. It was hard to see them clearly, being photos within a photo, but one, just above the younger man's head, showed two boys, arms around each other's shoulders. One boy was holding a trophy. She thought that boy was a younger version of Xu's brother/cousin - the two grins were almost identical. And the other…she squinted, but it was too hard to tell. She wondered if the lab would be able to enlarge the picture, or if it would be too grainy.

Misaki was still engrossed in the photo when her desk phone rang.


	10. Chapter 10

Xu was already at the café when Misaki arrived, stirring a coffee and looking anxious. Misaki slid into the booth across from her with a friendly smile, and passed over the young woman's cell phone. Like Matsumoto had said, the phone was a bright purple. What he hadn't mentioned was the small charm tied to it: a plastic jade dragon.

"Thank you!" Xu took the phone and immediately started scrolling through messages.

"I hope you didn't miss anything important. Tea, please," she said to the waitress.

"No. Just my roommate wondering where I was all night." Xu dropped the phone into her book bag, which was on the bench beside her. Her grammar could use some work, and her accent had been especially difficult to understand over the phone, but Misaki was relieved to find that now that she was no longer in shock, Xu's Japanese was passable.

"You didn't go home?"

Xu shook her head. "I was too upset, so my cousin took me back to his apartment."

That made sense, Misaki supposed. Hei would want to keep an eye on her until he was sure that she wouldn't talk to anyone she shouldn't. Still, she was surprised that he hadn't erased Xu's memory yet; was it just not convenient, or had he actually listened to her advice to wait?

"It must have been nice to have a family member with you - that was a lucky coincidence, him working so close to the park."

"Yeah. I still can't believe it's really him," Xu said, stirring her coffee absently.

"I take it you didn't know he was in Tokyo?"

Xu stared into her coffee. "He told me not to tell anyone I met him…but you obviously already know…" She looked up at Misaki. "So it should be ok to talk to you, right?"

The waitress brought Misaki her tea. She thanked the woman, and blew on it before taking a sip. "I would think so."

The other woman continued to stare into her cup. "I haven't seen him in ten years - I thought he was dead, our whole family did. Then I run into him in Tokyo of all places, and he acts like he wants as little to do with me as possible."

"I'm sure that's not true," Misaki lied. "It must have been a shock, running into you out of the blue like that." A small voice in the back of her mind was warning her to step carefully, but she managed to ignore it. "Why…why did you think he was dead?"

"His parents died, and he and Xing disappeared. The government told us they were dead too."

"Xing?"

"His little sister. She's a year younger than me," Xu explained.

"I remember he told me he had a sister." Misaki hadn't thought much about the conversation she'd had with Hei the night he made her dinner, before she found out he was BK-201. She'd assumed the whole thing had been an act. She remembered the look of sadness he'd worn briefly when he mentioned his sister; had he actually told her some true things that night?

Xu leaned forward intently. "Really? Did he say where she is?"

Misaki shook her head.

"Oh." Xu sat back again. "He won't tell me anything about her…he got almost angry every time I asked. Tian never used to get angry."

"People change," Misaki told her gently. "I'm sure he's been through a lot in the past ten years, especially after losing his parents. Do you mind me asking how they died?" She was pretty sure she already knew the answer. New contractors no longer felt any attachments to other people; close friends and family members were usually their first victims.

Xu stirred her coffee again, clearly wrestling with something in her mind. Misaki waited. Finally, the other woman shrugged. "I don't know. The doctors and police couldn't figure it out. And Tian won't talk about it, even though I'm sure he knows. I just don't understand why he never came home."

"Maybe it's still too painful?"

Xu gave another shrug. "I guess. He still has the rest of us. I don't think I could spend ten years all alone, without any of my family. I don't see how he can do it." She rubbed her eye angrily; Misaki could see a tear threatening to fall. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't talk about such personal things. You said you had some more questions for me, about last night?"

"I just need some clarification on a couple of things," Misaki assured her, a little disappointed that they'd moved off the subject of Hei so soon. "We're still trying to make sense of exactly what the men you saw were doing in the park last night. Were you able to remember anything more regarding what you heard them saying?"

Xu shook her head, and looked a little guilty. "I've been trying to forget as much of last night as I can. Did you find out who they were?"

"We have some leads," Misaki said vaguely. "It's alright if you don't remember; I just want to make sure we have as much information as possible."

Having asked a legitimate question about the case, she gave herself permission to move on to the topic that she'd really driven all the way out to the university to discuss. "You remember that I recorded our conversation? We had a transcript of the recording made this morning, and there was something I think the translator might have gotten wrong; at least, it doesn't make any sense to me."

She pulled out her copy of the transcript, and flipped to the last page. "Here," she said, turning the paper and pointing so that Xu could see both the Chinese and Japanese script. "What do these last lines mean?"

Xu ran her finger along the Japanese characters. "It looks like the translator got it right. It doesn't really mean anything," she said.

"Why is Li talking about dragons?" Misaki pressed. If Xu was involved with the MSS, then Misaki was tipping her hand; but she found that she really didn't care. Belatedly, she realized that she shouldn't have used the name 'Li'; she didn't know if Hei's family name was 'Xu' or something else. But his cousin didn't seem to notice anything odd about it.

"He's not talking about dragons; he's just telling me everyone feels afraid."

Misaki frowned. "I don't see the connection."

"You know, uh…" Xu stared up at the ceiling, searching for the right words. "Horoscopes. Chinese horoscopes?"

"You mean the new year animals?"

Xu nodded, looking embarrassed. "I was supposed to be born right after the new year - a dragon year. But my mother thinks dragons are animals for boys, not girls. So when her doctor asked when she wanted me to be born - because she was going to have, um, what is it, the surgery, instead of natural - she did it at the end of the old year, which was a, uh…" Xu looked at the transcript again to find the word. "A rabbit year. Girls make good rabbits," she said, rolling her eyes a little. "So my birthday says I'm a rabbit, but really I should have been born as a dragon."

"And that's what Li was talking about?" Misaki asked, still confused.

Xu idly stirred her coffee, chin resting in her other hand. "My brother used to tease me about being a rabbit all the time, asking if I needed to eat more carrots, that sort of thing. Well, he still does that. I used to always say I wished I was a dragon instead of a rabbit. Then one day Tian told me that if I wanted to be a dragon, I should just _be_ a dragon." She smiled, reminding Misaki strongly of Li. "He always knew the right thing to say. Ever since then, whenever I'm afraid, I tell myself I'm a dragon, not a rabbit. It helps me feel better."

Misaki smiled. "It sounds like you two were very close growing up."

"Mm-hm. All four of us were. Do you want to see something?" Without waiting for Misaki's answer, Xu pulled a binder out of her bag. She opened it to retrieve a worn photo, which she placed on the table and turned so Misaki could see. "Don't tell Tian I showed you this, I don't think he'd like it."

"I won't," Misaki promised, and looked at the photo with interest. It was a family photo, taken in front of a city river during what looked like some sort of summer festival. Misaki recognized the older man from the pictures on Xu's phone, standing in the center with a woman who was probably his wife. Two younger couples stood on either side of them, and clustered in the front were four children, two boys and two girls. The boys were dressed in the same black martial arts uniforms that Misaki had noticed in the other picture, while the girls wore white sundresses.

"That's me and Jiang, my brother." Xu used the swizzle stick from her coffee to point at a scowling girl and one of the boys. "And that's Tian and Xing." The other boy was a little taller than Jiang. He had a big grin on his face and stood with his arms around his laughing sister.

"This was the last time we were all together," Xu said sadly. "The Gates appeared a week later, and a few days after that, Xing and Tian were gone, and my aunt and uncle were dead. That's them." She pointed at the couple standing behind her cousins. "Xu An and Li Xinkun."

Misaki blinked. Hei was using his father's name for his alias? His name really _was_ Li? She wondered if he had chosen that, or if it had been assigned to him. Li was one of the most common family names in China, she knew.

"Why do you look so unhappy in this?" she asked Xu, trying not to appear too interested in the young Li.

Xu shrugged. "I don't even remember. Probably I was upset that I had to be in the dance with Xing, instead of the kung fu demonstration with Jiang and Tian. Even though I was terrible at both."

"I bet Li was good in martial arts," Misaki said, smiling in spite of herself.

The other woman laughed. "No! Well, sort of. He was really good at the individual demonstrations, but he never won any fights."

"Never?" That surprised her.

Xu shook her head, still smiling. "Either he would lose, or his matches ended in, uh, what's the word? Where there's no winner or loser?"

"A draw?"

"Yes, a draw. He wouldn't attack his opponent, only defend. Grandfather used to always push him to fight harder - Grandfather runs the school they trained at - but he never would. Finally he and Grandfather had a talk; I don't know what they said, but Grandfather stopped making him spar in tournaments after that, just in training. And even in training, Tian never tried to beat anyone. I think it was because he didn't want to hurt somebody, even by accident. My brother's won some national awards, and even now he says it's because sparring with Tian made him have to fight harder to win, instead of just, um, draw."

That sounded like Li. Misaki looked down at the smiling faces in the photo, a close-knit family who didn't know their lives were about to be destroyed. And really, Li was just as much a casualty as his parents: the cheerful young boy who didn't want to hurt anyone was gone, replaced by a cold, unfeeling killer. She didn't want to know what had happened to his sister.

Xu chewed on the end of her swizzle stick and regarded Misaki thoughtfully. The expression reminded her uncomfortably of Kanami. "So, how well do you know Tian?"

"We're acquaintances." Misaki passed the photo back to Xu and focused on sipping her tea.

"Oh. That's what he said too, when I asked him about you, but he wouldn't say anything else. Well, one thing - he said that he thinks you're beautiful."

Misaki almost dropped her teacup. "He said what?"

Xu smiled innocently. "Not in those words, exactly. I just said that I thought you would look beautiful in a nice dress, and he said that you do, but he prefers the way you look in a suit."

Misaki did her best to ignore the tingling in her spine. It didn't matter what he told his cousin; contractor were liars, she couldn't forget that.

"Where did he see you in a dress?" Xu's smile definitely reminded her of Kanami.

"We first met at a party a friend of mine was throwing; Li was working on the catering staff, and my friend made me wear a dress I would never have picked out in a million years." Misaki tried to sound casual. "We're really just acquaintances, nothing more; try not to tease him about it too much."

Xu sighed. "I won't. He used to be so much fun to tease about girls, but not anymore."

"Maybe he'll start to be his old self again after you've spent some more time together."

" _If_ we spend more time together." Xu stared down into her coffee. "He said he's too busy with work today and tomorrow to see me. That's ok, I guess; I have an exam tomorrow I have to study for anyway. Mei-li and I are going to be at the library all night tonight. He did promise to come over on Saturday, when I Skype with my parents. He wouldn't let me call Grandfather this morning, but he said that by Saturday he'll be ready to talk to everyone. I can wait two days," she sighed glumly.

_Saturday's when he'll erase her memory, then_. The thought didn't make Misaki as sad as she thought it should; it didn't sound like either Hei or Xu were getting any real happiness out of seeing each other again. It would probably be in Xu's best interest to forget that her cousin was still alive. _Great, now I'm starting to think like a contractor_.


	11. Chapter 11

"There's a problem with the item," Huang said without preamble. He was the last one to arrive in the playground.

"What sort of problem?" Mao asked. The cat had made no mention of Hei's overnight visitor at all while they were waiting, but Hei could tell that he hadn't lost interest. Strangely, he thought that Yin's attention was on him more than usual as well.

"Apparently there's a file missing. A key - some kind of code or cipher that makes the rest of the flash drive's content readable. Seems our guy was trying to hold out for a bigger pay day."

"Do we know where the key is?" Hei asked.

Huang shook his head, and lit a cigarette. "Pay a visit to our contact. Avoid killing him if you can - just be your normal cheery self, and I'm sure he'll cooperate. Yin, do you have a location?"

"A motel near Ookayama Station."

"Right. Get to it."

_Looks like Jiao-tu's memory will have to wait until tomorrow_ , Hei thought, and followed Mao out of the playground to pick up his gear.

Night had fallen by the time Hei arrived at the motel, garbed as the Black Reaper. It was located near an industrial complex behind the train tracks; the sort of place that took cash and not names. According to Yin, the man had been here, alone, since last night. Did he think the Syndicate wouldn't be able to locate him? _Idiot_.

Hei shorted out the motel's breaker box, plunging the building into darkness. He slipped into the main hallway and counted the doors on his right, deftly dodging a few of the motel's occupants as they ventured out of their rooms to see what the problem with the power was.

"Contact is still in the room," Mao reported from outside. "He's trying to get out the window, but isn't having much luck." The cat sounded amused.

_…Nine…ten_. He made quick work of the electronic lock and entered the room. In the halogen glow from the parking lot outside, he could see an overweight man in an undershirt and boxers struggling to fit himself through a window that he'd only managed to open about a foot. The man hadn't heard him come in.

"Where's the key?" Hei asked in a low voice.

The man gave a startled cry and turned back to the room awkwardly. He didn't look relieved to recognize the Black Reaper. "W-What do you want? Are you here to give me the rest of my money?"

Hei moved towards him slowly. "Where's the key?" he repeated. The man tried to back away, but the window was behind him.

"Key? What?"

Hei darted forward and with one hand pinned the man against the window, his other hand squeezing the man's throat.

"There was a file missing," Hei said with deadly patience. "The key."

The man's breath was coming in wheezing gasps; his fingers pried uselessly at Hei's hand. Hei increased the pressure on his throat.

"It was there, I swear it was! With the other files! I transferred it over just an hour before I gave it to you! Unless…that bastard…"

"Unless what?" He squeezed a little harder. The man tried to speak, but no intelligible words emerged. Hei lessened his grip slightly - but only slightly.

Sweat was pouring down the man's face. "I left the flash drive on my desk, he must have removed the key while the girl was distracting me. He didn't want me to sell it! I know he called those contractors and tried to have me killed!"

"So where is the key?"

"In my office! I have a back-up copy!"

Hei released the man, who fell to the floor like a sack of rice, coughing and sputtering. "I'll meet you there. And don't think you can run; we can always find you." He left the man to recover and get dressed, and slipped back into the dark hallway.

"Yin, where is his office?"

"On the other side of Ookayama Station. Tokyo Institute of Technology. Physics Building, room 102."

_Tokodai_?

"Colleges are still pretty crowded this time of night," Mao said over the radio. "You can't go walking around there wearing your mask."

"I know. You stay on the contact, I'll head over ahead of him." Once outside the motel, Hei stripped off his bulletproof coat - it was too conspicuous, even at a university - and rolled his mask and weapons inside it, making a tidy black bundle. He was still wearing all black; less noticeable than if he'd left his coat on, but he would look a little strange nonetheless.

Ookayama Station was packed full of commuters, a typical Thursday evening. Hei lifted some change from a businessman's pocket and stowed his gear inside a coin locker. He didn't like leaving his knives behind, but he wasn't exactly helpless without them. Next, he made his way casually through the crowd until he spotted a man waiting on the platform with a gray windbreaker over his arm. Moving with the surge of the crowd, Hei jostled the man hard enough to cause him to loosen his grip on the jacket; by the time the man noticed it was gone, Hei was on the far end of the platform heading toward the street.

"Contact is leaving the motel now," Mao reported. "Looks like he's heading towards the school. Good for him."

Hei followed Yin's directions to the physics building. With the windbreaker on over his black clothes, no one gave him a second glance. He was just another student, on his way to an evening class or off to meet some friends. _Room 102_. The ground floor was numbered in the two hundreds. Hei found a stairwell and headed down.

The stairs ended in a brightly lit hallway lined with doors to offices and laboratories. Two other hallways branched off of the main one. There weren't many people down here, he was relieved to see. A sign posted above a water fountain indicated that rooms 101-110 were down the first branch.

He was about to turn the corner when he spotted Yin's specter in the fountain, and simultaneously heard her say, "Don't turn. Cross the hall." Confused, he followed her instructions, glancing surreptitiously down the hallway in which room 102 was situated. About halfway down, three people stood talking: a young man, a young woman in red glasses, and - _Jiao-tu_?

Heart beating faster, he continued down the main hall until he reached the second branch. Turning that corner, he loitered near an office door. Jiao-tu had the entire campus to wander around, why was she in this building? "Mao, where's the contact?"

"Approaching the building. I'll wait out by the door and keep watch for any unexpected company."

"The students are leaving out the back exit," Yin said. "Contact is approaching the same way you came in. You're clear."

Hei breathed a sigh of relief. He retraced his steps and turned down the hall his cousin had been standing in just in time to see the group exiting the other end. Room 102 was the first door on the left. A placard under the frosted glass window read 'Professor Iwakara'. The name sounded familiar, but Hei couldn't place it. He focused his attention on the door. It was locked; he picked the lock quickly, and slipped into a messy office.

He had just enough time to re-lock the door and settle himself in a corner, leaning against the wall as if he'd been waiting for hours when his contact - who must be named Iwakara - unlocked the office and walked in.

The man flicked on the lights and jumped in fright when he saw Hei inside. Iwakara's lip was cut and swollen, and his nose looked bruised, possibly broken; he was wearing a coat that just barely concealed a stain of dried blood on the shirt beneath it. Hei hadn't done that, and he didn't remember that the man had been injured in the park last night.

Whether Iwakara recognized Hei as the man in the mask who'd nearly strangled him, Hei didn't know. But whatever Iwakara saw in Hei's face told him that Hei was no college student.

"Close the door," Hei said in his Black Reaper voice.

Iwakara hesitated. "Are you going to kill me as soon as I give you the key?"

"I'm going to kill you if you don't do as I ask." Hei let the threat linger for a moment before adding, "If you give me the key, you'll get the money that was promised to you - and you'll get to live."

Iwakara cautiously closed the door, never taking his eyes off of Hei. "It's in the room next door."

When Hei made no move to go ahead of him, the professor opened the door to the adjoining room and walked in. Only then did Hei follow. The next room was some sort of laboratory. Hei automatically checked his exits. They were in the basement; the only door was the one through which they had entered. No windows. Iwakara sat down at a computer near the door; Hei positioned himself in the doorway, splitting his attention between the main office door and the laboratory.

"This computer is secured," the professor said, half to Hei and half to himself. "He won't have been able to remove the key."

Hei gazed around the laboratory while Iwakara typed away at the computer. He had no idea what any of the instruments or equipment were for, and he didn't study them closely. That had been a near thing, almost walking into Jiao-tu like that; he wouldn't have been able to explain what he was doing on campus, unless he was there to see her - which he couldn't do, not in the middle of a mission.

He owed Yin for warning him. The doll was supposed to be watching for rival teams and keeping tabs on Iwakara; there was no need to warn him about students. Iwakara…Hei remembered why that name was familiar - Jiao-tu had mentioned him last night. She must be taking his class. Coincidence after inconvenient coincidence.

"I have a spare flash drive somewhere around here," Iwakara muttered nervously. "What's that smell? Smells like rotten satsumas."

Then Hei noticed it as well - a familiar smell, sweet and volatile. It triggered a vivid memory.

He, Bai, and Amber had gone into a town that had been leveled by one of Carmine's attacks in search of medical supplies for their squad. The town's residents, save for the few who had managed to flee, were buried under concrete and rubble, along with the enemy mercenary squad that had been quartering there. As the three made their cautious way to the local drug store, which was only half collapsed, they passed dozens of townsfolk trapped under fallen walls or lying in the street, injured so badly that they didn't even have the breath to beg for help. Neither Amber nor Bai so much as glanced at the dead or dying; Hei paused and cut the throat of each one he found. Neither woman commented.

They were just a few yards from the drug store when Amber shouted, "Run!" Hei and Bai knew better than to question her; they made it to cover in the building just as a man armed with a semi-automatic weapon opened fire from behind a pile of bricks. He was joined by several more men, pinning them down inside the store.

Bai couldn't get close enough to use her power, and Hei didn't have enough knives to throw. He demanded that Amber use her ability and stop time long enough for him to get out of the store and hunt down the enemy. Amber just smiled suggestively and replied, "I'd rather save that time for something else." Then she began pulling bottles of nail polish remover from the shelf behind Bai. "This is the real stuff; it should do the trick."

Hei and Amber piled cartons of cigarettes near the store entrance, doused in the sweet-smelling liquid, then took shelter behind a row of metal shelves. When the enemy charged through the door, a single spark from Bai ignited the conflagration.

The memory flitted through his mind in an instant, leaving behind one key word. _Acetone_.

Hei tensed and scanned the lab again. On the bench closest to Iwakara's computer was a two-liter brown glass bottle bearing a flammable warning sticker. The cap was off. The bottle stood next to some piece of equipment that Hei didn't recognize; but he did recognize the exposed copper wires, and the digital stopwatch that was plugged into it. There were eight seconds left on the timer.

"Get out!" was all Hei had time to shout, though he knew it was pointless. He dashed into the office and wrenched open the main door just as the explosion rocked the building.


	12. Chapter 12

Gradually, Hei became aware that someone was watching him. He opened his eyes, and came face to face with Yin's specter in a puddle of water. There was a painfully loud ringing in his ears, and it was…raining?

He stifled a groan and pushed himself up into a sitting position, shards of glass falling from his back onto the tile floor. Everything hurt, especially his left arm, but that wasn't important right now. Jiao-tu - she had been in the hallway; had she been caught in the explosion?

No, he remembered, she had left before he went into the office. She was fine. _Focus on the situation at hand_ , he told himself. _Emotions are unnecessary distractions._ Thick black smoke was billowing into the hall, and hot flames licked at the edges of a massive hole in the laboratory wall. The intense heat coming from the burning office stung his exposed face and neck. Dimly, he became aware that what he had thought was rain was just the sprinkler system; the water falling closest to the fire was hissing into steam.

Hei staggered to his feet, still a little dazed. Which way was the exit? Between the smoke and steam, he could hardly see. A flash of blue from the floor caught his eye. He looked down at the floor again; Yin's specter vanished, then reappeared a few feet down the hall. Waiting. Coughing in the smoke, he followed her specter to the stairwell.

His left arm was aching more now; he saw that the sleeve of the gray windbreaker was charred and black. He stripped the jacket off, wincing in pain. A small but steady stream of people was trickling down from the upper floors while the fire alarms blared. He joined them, though not without receiving some curious looks; he hid his face as best he could.

The cool night air stung his skin almost as badly as the fire had; it didn't help that he was soaking wet. He slipped off into the dark as soon as he was outside the building. Mao caught up with him, and said something Hei couldn't hear over the ringing in his ears. Then he realized it was worse in his right ear; he plucked out his ear piece. That helped.

"Hei! What happened in there?" Mao repeated.

"Where's the nearest safe house?" Hei didn't want to have to explain events twice. And now that he was out of immediate danger, he needed a first aid kit.

"Huang's bringing the car around."

Sirens sounded in the distance.

~~~~o~~~~

"I can't believe how close we were to getting blown up!" Mei-li said with a shudder. "If we'd stayed just a few more minutes…What do you think happened?"

Jiao-tu could only shake her head. The flashing red and blue lights of the fire trucks and police cars were hypnotizing.

"It was probably some kind of laboratory accident," Arakawa said. "People get careless all the time - no one ever pays attention to those safety videos."

First the park, now here. "Contractors," Jiao-tu whispered.

Mei-li heard her. "What? Don't say stupid things, 'Tu, contractors aren't real, they're just a rumor."

"They are real," Arakawa said. He gave Jiao-tu an appraising look, his black eye gleaming red then blue in the reflected light of the emergency vehicles. "Why do you think contractors would be responsible for setting a fire in a physics building?"

Jiao-tu shrugged, wishing she hadn't said anything. She could feel the heat of the fire on her face, even though they were standing well behind the police barricades. _Dragons aren't afraid of fire_ , she told herself. But it wasn't very convincing. She wanted to call Tian, just to hear his voice telling her that everything was okay; how could he not have a phone?

"Wait, you can't be serious!" Mei-li was saying. "People with magic powers? That's impossible."

Arakawa was still watching Jiao-tu. "Not impossible, just unexplained. When the Gates first appeared, some people were changed. They gained special abilities, superhuman powers, but at the cost of their humanity. They don't feel emotion, or guilt, or remorse. They're not human anymore, they're monsters. Killers."

_That makes sense_ , Jiao-tu thought numbly. _Who else but a monster would kill Aunt and Uncle?_

"How could that happen?" Mei-li asked.

Arakawa shrugged. "No one knows for sure; the existence of contractors is classified, and so is all the research concerning them. But you know the false stars?"

Both women looked up automatically; smoke from the fire obscured only a small part of the twinkling, fake night sky.

"Each false star is linked to an individual contractor; when a contractor uses his ability, his star shows distinct changes in its electromagnetic spectrum, including increased emission of lancer opt synchrotron radiation. Contractors themselves emit synchrotron radiation when using their powers. Don't tell anyone," he lowered his voice conspiratorially, "but Professor Iwakara is researching the source of contractors' abilities. He thinks it has something to do with the link between them and their stars."

"You mean, the radiation?" Jiao-tu asked.

He nodded. "If we can find a way to disrupt the pattern of radiation when they use their powers, we can protect ourselves against them - maybe even cut them off from their abilities altogether."

"Then they wouldn't be able to hurt anyone anymore." Jiao-tu hugged herself, remembering the windstorm in the park, and the dead man with the knife in his chest.

"Exactly. They're a serious threat to humanity - what's to stop them from taking us over completely?" Arakawa's voice had risen steadily as he talked.

_He hates contractors_ , Jiao-tu realized. _I wonder who he knows who was killed by one_? That made her think of Tian again. It didn't matter if he didn't have a phone.

"I have to go," she said, and pushed her way through the crowd, Mei-li's questioning shout lost in the din behind her.

~~~~o~~~~

"Just great," Huang muttered. "You're sure he's dead?"

"No." Hei wrapped a strip of gauze around the blisters on his arm. His burns weren't extensive - he'd gotten far enough from the lab that only his left arm, brought up to shield his face from the blast, was injured - but they were second degree, and extremely painful. There were some spots on the side of his ribcage and back that were a little tender, but not bad enough to require dressing. His shirt had fallen apart when he'd removed it to assess his burns. "But it's probable. And I doubt the computer survived."

"Damn it. You couldn't have taken the computer out with you?" They had regrouped in a motel room, two miles from Tokodai. Huang was occupied with his usual nervous pacing, while Hei sat at the small table with the first aid kit.

"I didn't have time," Hei said. He reached for another bandage, only to find that Yin had already opened it and was holding it out for him. The doll had stayed close by his side since they'd arrived.

"I don't get it," Mao said from his perch on the bed. "Why kill our contact? I mean, I know he thought those contractors in the park were there to kill him, but I thought he was just being paranoid - they were obviously after the item."

Hei took the bandage from Yin. "I don't think the bomb was meant for him," he said slowly. "It wasn't even a bomb, not really. It was rigged to look like an electrical fire. Whoever set it up can't have known that Iwakara would be there when it triggered. I only noticed it by chance." He _should_ have noticed the acetone smell right away, but he hadn't been as focused as he usually was.

"Could there still be another copy of the key?" Mao wondered. "What did he say in the motel; someone stole it off the flash drive in the first place?"

Hei started to shrug, but the motion stretched the burned skin on his back painfully. "He said someone wanted to stop him from selling the information, so this person removed the key from the flash drive and hired the contractors in the park. If the only other copy was on that computer in the lab, then they were trying to destroy it. Iwakara was just unlucky enough to be there when they did."

Huang stopped his pacing. "So who is this person?"

"No idea," Hei told him.

"You didn't ask?"

"It wasn't directly relevant to the job, Huang," Mao told him. "How could Hei know it would end up being important?"

Huang rubbed at his forehead. "'Try to avoid killing him', I'm sure I told you that. Damn it. The Syndicate is not going to be happy about this."

Hei thought Huang was probably right, but he didn't care. The contact was dead or close to it and the key was lost. That meant that the job was over, and he could focus on dealing with the Jiao-tu situation and getting life back to normal.

"I'm going to call this in," Huang continued. "Mao, you come with me, I don't think I can explain this without backup." He looked at Yin. "Just go to sleep or something until we're done."

"I can take her home," Hei said.

Huang just grunted, which Hei took for assent, and left the room with Mao. Hei found a change of clothes in the motel closet, and carefully buttoned the shirt on over his bandages. Together he and Yin walked to the nearest train station.

"Good job tonight," he told her quietly when they had taken their seats on the mostly empty train.

Yin didn't answer, just tentatively touched the bandage on his arm that was only partially hidden by his shirt sleeve.

"It's fine," he assured her, though it wasn't. He had taken four aspirin, but the pills weren't helping. Hei was exhausted and his ears were still ringing from the explosion; he just wanted to get home and go to sleep. They rode the rest of the way in silence.

When they arrived at the station, Hei took Yin's hand and led her onto the platform. He turned towards the street exit, but Yin didn't move. He gave her hand a light tug. "Yin."

"Hei."

Her face was turned towards the opposite end of the platform. Hei followed her blind gaze: a young woman was sitting hunched on a bench, fidgeting with a purple phone. _Jiao-tu_.

He turned away. "Yin, let's go."

But Yin slipped her hand out of his and walked towards his cousin. Hei gave a weary sigh. He had no choice but to follow.

She had been crying, he could see. " _Are you lost, Xiao-tu?_ " he asked her.

Jiao-tu looked up, and just as in the park last night (had it only been last night?), threw herself into his arms without a word. He held her tight, despite the pain on his skin. _She's not Bai_ , he told himself. A small voice in the back of his mind answered, _No, but she's still family_.


	13. Chapter 13

Misaki drummed her fingers on the steering wheel of her Porsche, trying to decide exactly how big of a fool she was. She was pretty sure that what she was about to do would be a major violation of her agreement with Hei - but she couldn't bring herself to believe that he would actually follow through on his threat to kill her.

_He's a contractor_ , she reminded herself for the hundredth time. _A criminal. A liar and a killer. Just because we didn't find any bodies at the motel, doesn't mean he didn't kill anyone there_. The smiling, innocent boy in Xu's photo was as dead as those contractors in the park.

She had only dreamed him kissing her in the basement of the bar, and if he had flirted in the park, well, he clearly hadn't meant to.

_But he called me 'Misaki'._

She sighed to herself and got out of the car, blinking in the harsh noonday light. She considered her gun for a moment, then removed it from its holster and leaned across the driver's seat to tuck it away in the glove box before locking and shutting the door. Bringing it would send the wrong message.

She had, at least, parked two blocks away. That should count for something. And it gave her two blocks to talk herself out of this. She started down the street. An orange cat was sitting on a concrete wall, eying her with interest as she walked past. Misaki did her best to ignore it. Was Mao always a black cat? Was he always a cat, for that matter? She wished she knew more about his ability - she considered, not for the first time, going through the log of BK-201's activity since he arrived in Tokyo and comparing it with other star activity to see if she could determine Mao's identity, as Ootsuka had done with SY-573 and TX-788. But even if she did find something, she couldn't act on it; not without violating her promise.

She wished she could stop by the tobacco shop and say hello to Yin, but she was pretty sure that that would be crossing the line. As if this wasn't. At least this wouldn't get Yin into trouble; just Misaki.

The two blocks passed by quickly under her feet, and before she was ready, she found herself standing in front of apartment 201. Standing, but not knocking. This was stupid. He might not even be home; she should turn around and leave. Instead, Misaki took a deep breath, raised her hand - and jumped as the door swung open.

"Hei. I -"

"Come in before someone sees you," Hei said, standing to the side to give her room to enter. His tone was neutral, but she thought she could detect a touch of irritation. She stepped inside quickly.

Hei shut the door behind her and leaned against it with a relaxed posture, casually blocking her only route out. He was wearing a sleeveless black shirt that bared his toned arms. It also bared two wide bandages wrapped around his left arm. One of the bandages had a little blood seeping through, and there was a nasty scrape along his chin.

"What happened?" Misaki asked in alarm.

"It's fine," he said brusquely.

He had on the blank, emotionless face of the Black Reaper; this didn't bode well for her visit. He didn't say anything more, just crossed his arms (carefully) and waited for her to explain herself.

Straight to business, then. She moved a few steps into the kitchen to put a little more space between them, and leaned against the wall. "Do you know who the two contractors in the park were?"

He didn't answer, just continued to look at her. She had meant for this to be a casual conversation, but Misaki was having trouble focusing under his dark-eyed scrutiny. She retreated into her familiar police officer mode.

"We found out that they were operatives for the Chinese Ministry of State Security."

He didn't react to the information; either he already knew it, or it was meaningless to him.

"We found a cell phone on one of the bodies with directions to a meeting place in the park; the message was from someone called 'Dragon'."

This time, Misaki saw a slight tensing of his shoulders, his well-defined muscles tightening. Had he made the same connection she had? "I know you were at a motel near Ookayama last night. We didn't get any reports of anything suspicious occurring at the motel aside from a blackout; however, approximately half an hour after your star was active, an equipment malfunction in a laboratory at Tokyo Institute of Technology sparked an electrical fire and subsequent explosion, killing a man. Tokodai is just minutes away from that Ookayama motel."

"What does this have to do with the MSS?"

He didn't deny any involvement in the Tokodai fire, Misaki noticed. She looked at his bandaged arm again, and realized that he wasn't leaning against the door just to block her way out; he was hurt and tired, and was using it for support. He wasn't just connected to the fire, he'd been _in_ it, or near enough.

He continued to watch her with that impenetrable gaze; she took a steadying breath, and went on, "The man who was killed in the fire was identified this morning as Iwakara Sachio, a professor of quantum physics at Tokodai who was heavily involved in classified Gate research. According to the preliminary investigation, he may have been involved in something suspicious, possibly criminal. He didn't show up for his classes yesterday, and his bank flagged some suspicious activity: a large sum of money was deposited into his account on Wednesday evening, minutes before your fight with the MSS contractors. The transaction was voided early this morning by an unidentifiable third party - as if someone had paid him for something, but decided to take it back upon his death."

"I assume there's a reason you're telling me this?" Hei asked, a touch impatiently.

"I'm telling you what I know," she said, "because it's not what Section 4 knows - I made the connections to our park incident on my own, with information from a detective I know who's working the Iwakara case. I was interested, not just because of your activity so close by, but because I remembered seeing the name Iwakara Sachio before - on the class schedule that one of my subordinates obtained during our routine background check on Xu."

His eyes narrowed at the mention of his cousin's name. "You think Jiao-tu is working for the MSS, is that it? She isn't."

Misaki had been about to say that she _didn't_ think so, but it irritated her that he could so quickly dismiss her opinion, before he had even heard it. "It is plausible - a student studying abroad would be a prime target for a recruiter. How can you be so sure?"

"I know you've talked with her; you should be able to answer your own question. She'd make a terrible operative. She has no motivation to risk herself like that. She's frightened, emotional, and incapable of lying or hurting anyone."

Misaki crossed her arms. "I'm sure she'd say the same thing about you." _I certainly did_.

He didn't answer for a moment, then shifted his eyes to the wall across from him. "That's fair," he said quietly.

"There's no official investigation involving her; there's not even any suspicion on her," Misaki said, softening her tone. "I honestly _don't_ think that she's knowingly involved in whatever this is, but there are just too many coincidences here for them to _all_ be coincidences. And, well…I just wanted to make sure that you had all the information we do."

Hei turned back to her, his gaze piercing. "Why?"

Misaki shrugged uncomfortably. "My intuition is telling me that she's mixed up in this thing somehow; it's the same sort of feeling I had after meeting Yin. I just want to make sure she stays safe."

The tension drained from Hei's shoulders, and his face began to show the weariness she suspected he had been trying to hide. "I don't know who set the fire that killed Iwakara," he said. "I don't even think he was intended to be killed. But he's dead, and so the job is over. Jiao-tu shouldn't be in danger from anyone."

Misaki felt a small thrill at his words. It was one thing for her to know that he was involved in the case, and for him to know that she knew, but him admitting it to her was another thing entirely.

"Are you still going to have her memory erased?"

"Of course. I meant to do it last night, but things got…complicated." He unfolded his arms, resting his hands lightly in his jeans pockets. "I'll tell Huang about her tomorrow; she said she has an exam today, no point interfering with that."

Such a human consideration, Misaki mused. She knew in her head that he was BK-201, the infamous Black Reaper, one of the most dangerous contractors in the world. But right now all she saw was the boy from Xu's photo, a decade older, burdened with the tragic deaths of his parents and desperate to hold onto what family he had left. She was somehow sure that Yin counted as family to him as well.

"I feel like I should start calling you 'Li' again," she said, smiling a little.

He raised his head. "Why?"

"It is your real name, after all."

And with those words, all trace of humanity was wiped from his expression. "My real name is Hei," he told her, his voice cold and hard as steel. "Li Tian is dead. I killed him ten years ago."

_Damn it_. Just when she thought he was starting to open up to her; she'd warned herself about this. He was a contractor after all, a liar and a manipulator. "Like you killed your parents?" she asked quietly.

Was that a flicker of anger she saw in his eyes? She pushed a little harder. "Xu told me your sister disappeared; did you kill her, too?"

"You need to leave." There was a dangerous, cutting edge to his words.

"You need to move!" she snapped.

Never taking his dark eyes from her, he used his shoulders to push himself off the door and took two steps into the room, every move of his muscles tightly controlled as if he were walking a knife's edge between emotionless calm and unrestrained rage.

He hadn't left her much room; Misaki had to be careful not to brush against him as she walked to the door and opened it. He caught the door, and for a moment she feared that he was going to prevent her from leaving; but he just held it open, gripping it tightly. She thought she could feel the heat of his body as she slipped out past him, and her skin prickled; she resisted the urge to look back as she left, afraid of what she might see.

She had wanted to uncover that glimmer of emotion that he was so adept at keeping buried, to prove to herself that it was real - but she had not expected that reaction at all. She doubted he would ever be honest with her now.

_You're a fool, Misaki_.


	14. Chapter 14

Jiao-tu poked listlessly at her ramen. "I can't believe Iwakara is dead." She hadn't liked the man at all, but he had been an excellent physicist, and his research was part of what had interested her in Tokodai in the first place.

"I can't believe Professor Mure still made us take that exam," Mei-li said around a mouthful of noodles. They were in their apartment, eating on the sofa in front of the television. Jiao-tu wanted to watch the news reports of the university fire, Mei-li didn't; so they compromised, and were watching the news with the sound off.

"Ugh, don't remind me." Jiao-tu hadn't been able to focus on the exam at all. She'd wanted to spend the day with Tian, so that he would have someone to look after him; he was clearly in a lot of pain from his injuries after that stove fire in the restaurant where he worked. But he insisted that her classes were more important. She only left after he'd promised her that he would ask that quiet girl, Yin, if he needed help.

Then when she'd gotten to campus this morning, she heard the news about Iwakara. Chemistry had been the last thing she wanted to think about.

"After you ran off so mysteriously last night," Mei-li said, "I was asking Arakawa about what would happen if Iwakara's lab had been damaged in the fire - before I knew the fire _was_ in his lab, of course. He said the damage from the water alone would set their research back months, if not years."

"Wow. What's Arakawa going to do now?"

Mei-li shrugged. "He said he was able to back up some of the professor's data; maybe he'll be able to continue some of it on his own, if he can borrow someone else's equipment. Actually, he seemed more worried about you."

Jiao-tu's chopsticks slipped in her fingers. "Me? Why?"

Her roommate regarded her over the top of her glasses. "I told him you had been acting weird - not coming home all night, then your phone ending up with the police, then running off again last night for no reason. I remembered you had gone to Iwakara's office the other day, and I thought if you ran into Arakawa…and then didn't come home…" She let the suggestion hang in the air, unsaid. Then she sighed. "But then where were you _last_ night? He was just as confused as I was."

Jiao-tu blushed. "I did run into him at the professor's office, but he said he had work to do in the library, so I left."

"So there _is_ something going on between you two? 'Tu, I can't believe you didn't tell me!"

"There isn't! Honest; you know I would tell you if there was." Actually, Jiao-tu had hardly even thought about Arakawa in the past couple of days.

"Then where were you last night?" Mei-li demanded.

Jiao-tu sighed. "I can't tell you. It's nothing to do with Arakawa though." Why had Tian asked her to make that stupid promise? He was going to meet her roommates when he came over tomorrow anyway.

"Well, are you going to disappear again tonight?"

Jiao-tu shook her head, and poked at her food some more. She wanted to stop by Tian's again and see how he was doing, but he'd told her this morning that he was just going to go to bed early and get some extra rest; he needed it. She'd see him tomorrow.

"Good. We need a break, after being nearly blown up, and after that awful exam - let's go to Roppongi."

"Roppongi? So far?" Usually Mei-li preferred to go to clubs nearer the university, and complained about the cost when Jiao-tu or Liang wanted to go someplace like Roppongi or Shibuya.

Mei-li leaned over the arm of the sofa and shouted down the hall, "Liang!"

"What?" Their other roommate wandered into the living room, her long black hair wrapped in a towel and her make-up half done.

"Are you going out tonight? 'Tu and I were thinking of going to Roppongi."

Liang's eyes lit up. "Fun! I was going to get together with Chihiro and Umi for karaoke - I'll tell them to meet us at the train station."

Jiao-tu wasn't really in the mood to go out; but then again, it would be nice to have something to get her mind off of the events of the past couple of days.

~~~~o~~~~

There was a reason you always did stake-outs in pairs, Misaki reflected. It wasn't so that you had backup in case of trouble. It wasn't for the extra set of eyes, or even the company. It was so that you could leave for a few minutes to pee. She'd had entirely too much coffee tonight.

Her subordinates had been surprised when, at exactly 17:00, Misaki had gathered her things to leave. "Tomorrow's my day off," she told them. When that explanation was only greeted with blank stares, she added, "I have plans tonight." At those words, Saitou had turned beet red, and Ootsuka had given her a discreet thumbs up. Misaki had run home to change into more comfortable clothes - jeans, a light, long-sleeved cotton shirt, and a casual blazer that hid her gun - and was parked outside of Xu's apartment building by the time night fell.

She'd been here for five hours, and so far nothing suspicious or even interesting had happened. There was just the regular traffic of residents - mostly students, this close to the university. Xu and a woman in red glasses had arrived home around 18:00, and not long after that another woman, with hair almost as long as Misaki's, had let herself into the apartment. Since then, things had been quiet.

Maybe she should just call it quits and go home. She had no evidence that Xu was in any danger, after all. It was, like she'd told Hei, just a gut feeling. Hei. The whole reason she'd gone to his apartment this afternoon and told him what she had guessed was so that _he_ could protect his cousin - but by the end of their conversation, she wasn't entirely sure that he would.

It was rational for him to want to protect Yin; she was part of his team and he depended on her to watch his back. Family meant nothing to contractors. If he had only been looking after Xu because she was tangentially involved in his business with Iwakara, then, Iwakara being dead, he had no reason to be concerned with her beyond having her memory erased tomorrow. And if it were true that the business surrounding Iwakara had died with him, then as Hei said, Xu should be safe anyway.

Although, if family meant nothing to contractors, why had he gotten so angry when she'd brought up his parents and sister?

The lights in Xu's third floor apartment flicked out. Misaki dropped her coffee thermos, grabbed her field glasses, and searched for signs of trouble. The three women stepped out of their apartment, Xu locking the door behind them, and headed towards the stairwell. They were dressed to go out; this would be a good opportunity for anyone waiting in ambush.

Misaki got out of her car and followed the girls at a safe distance, scanning for anyone else who might be following them. She didn't see anyone, but that didn't mean much. If a doll was being used to track them, she would never know.

Xu and her roommates headed towards Ookayama station. Did Misaki really want to follow them all the way to a nightclub district? She considered her options. If someone else were tracking them, Xu would be just as vulnerable at a club - more so, even. And with all the caffeine in her system, Misaki would be up all night anyway, with nothing to distract her from thinking about her disastrous conversation with Hei.

Four other women met up with Xu and her roommates on the busy platform. Misaki risked five minutes for a restroom break; when she emerged, the girls were still waiting for their train, chatting and laughing together. The train arrived; the girls boarded, Misaki getting on one car back to keep Xu from recognizing her. Several times during the trip, she thought she felt eyes on her, but every time she turned, no one was there.

The girls were going to Roppongi, Misaki realized with irritation. Even in a crowded bar, without any company Misaki would attract way too much attention - the wrong kind of attention. She debated for a minute, then pulled out her cell phone.

~~~~o~~~~

"So, who are we stalking?" Kanami asked as she slid into the seat next to Misaki with a whiskey in her hand. They had to sit close in order to hear each other over the music of the bar. Misaki had chosen a table where she had a clear line of sight to the karaoke booth where Xu and her friends had closeted themselves; the bar was behind her.

"What are you talking about?"

Kanami just sighed. "Misaki, it's been months since I was last able to drag you out clubbing; then you just call me out of the blue saying you're in Roppongi? And," she picked up Misaki's glass and took a sip. "Yep. Water. So is this for a case, or are you stalking your boyfriends before you even start dating them now?"

"One time!" Misaki protested. Back in college, she had suspected that her boyfriend of two months was cheating on her; so she'd enlisted Kanami's help in following him for several days, and discovered that he was indeed cheating on her - with extra time in the library. He hadn't told her where he was going because he'd wanted her to think that he was too smart to need studying. She'd broken up with him not long after that.

"Alright, alright," Kanami said, smiling. "So it's a case then?"

"Sort of. I'm just keeping an eye on a witness to a case." There was a steady stream of people moving in and out of the bar, but so far no one looked out of place. "It's probably nothing," Misaki continued. "Thanks for coming out though, I was starting to get pretty bored - not to mention, I looked completely pathetic on my own."

"No problem. It'll give us a chance to finish our conversation from the other night. I told you all about me, but you never had a chance to tell me how things were going with that guy."

"What guy?"

Kanami gave her a knowing look. "The one we met at the mall - who you gave your phone number to? You said you were going to call him; I know things got crazy with the whole BK-201 kidnapping thing around that time. So did you ever call him?"

Misaki hesitated. She'd always relied on Kanami for relationship advice, and not being able to confide in her best friend had been wearing her down. She could talk about Li, without bringing up Hei; and maybe Kanami would have some insight that would help her figure him out.

"I didn't call him."

Kanami frowned; Misaki hurried on before her friend could say anything. "But I did stop by his place to say hello right before he was getting ready to fix dinner, and he invited me in to eat."

Kanami raised her eyebrows. "And?"

Misaki shrugged. "And, we ate, and we talked. Then I left."

"That's it? Have you talked to him since then?"

"A couple of times. But the conversations never seem to go the way I want them to." She idly swirled the ice in her water.

"How do you want them to go?"

"I guess…I just want him to be honest with me, and I feel like he isn't." Which was stupid. Why would a contractor be honest with anyone, let alone her?

"You think he's lying about something?" Kanami frowned. "Wait, don't tell me he really _is_ a cross-dresser?"

Unbidden, an image of the Black Reaper wearing a wig styled like a geisha's came to her mind, and she burst out laughing. The look on Kanami's face made her laugh even harder.

"Are you sure this is just water?" Kanami said, picking up Misaki's glass and eyeing it.

"No," Misaki said, wiping a tear from her eye. "I mean, yes, it is just water. Sorry. No, he's not a cross-dresser." Another snort of laughter escaped her. "I don't mean a lie like that. I mean, _emotionally_ honest. I don't know how he genuinely feels about anything. Including me."

"Hey, is this a private party?" an unfamiliar voice interrupted. Misaki and Kanami looked up to see two men standing in front of their table.

"Shinji, hi," Kanami said. "Actually, it's girls' night - sorry."

The man who had spoken raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Not that kind of girls' night," Kanami said, winking.

"Too bad," Shinji said. "Give us a shout if you girls want more company - we've got our own booth." He took his friend's arm and the men disappeared back into the crowd, staggering a little. The bar was starting to fill up, Misaki noticed, then remembered guiltily that she was supposed to be watching Xu. She glanced at the karaoke booth - they were still there.

"Sorry about that," Kanami told Misaki, watching the men leave. "So wait - how well do you know this guy, exactly?"

Misaki frowned. She'd thought she'd known Li pretty well, despite their brief interactions, but Hei wasn't Li. She did know contractors…but Hei didn't always act like a contractor, even when he wasn't pretending to be someone else. Was that the problem? Was she trying to think of him as either a regular human or a contractor, when in reality he was something in between? "Not as well as I thought I did at first, I guess."

"And how much time have you spent together?"

"Not a lot," Misaki admitted.

"You can't expect a guy to spill his innermost feelings at the very beginning of a relationship, can you? So," Kanami raised her glass and finished off her drink, "maybe you just need to spend more time with him. _Do_ you want to spend more time with him?"

"I…" She did, she knew. Despite her better judgment, despite knowing what he was capable of, just thinking about being near him made her heart beat faster - and not with fear.

"I'll take that blush for a yes," Kanami, smiling. "I'm going to go grab another drink - do you want something?"

Misaki looked over at the karaoke booth again; the girls looked like they had settled in for the night, and by now she was really starting to doubt that Xu was in any danger. "Maybe a glass of wine."

Kanami pursed her lips. "I'm not sure this place has wine; I'll check."

While she was gone, Misaki gave the bar a cursory scan. It was all well and good for Kanami to suggest that she and 'Li' spend more time together, but she seriously doubted she would see him again; as himself anyway. Whoever that was.

She sighed glumly. What was taking Kanami so long? A movement near the karaoke booth attracted her attention: one of the girls slipping out to use the restroom. Not Xu. What was Misaki doing here, really? If her witness had been anyone other than Hei's cousin, she doubted that she would be half as concerned. Stalking by proxy; that was what she was doing.

Misaki's phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out, and saw a new text message from Kanami:

_Think I'll go meet up with Shinji and the guys after all - give me a buzz if you need rescuing ;)_

_Rescuing? What is Kanami talking about_? She looked up from her phone, only to see a bottle of beer being held out to her.

"They don't have wine, but your friend said you like this brand."

Misaki stared dumbly for a long moment before finding her voice. "Hei?"


	15. Chapter 15

Hei stood in front of her, holding out the bottle. He had discarded his down-at-the-heel student look for dark wash jeans and a charcoal gray V-neck pullover that covered his injured arm but did little to hide his physique; he blended in perfectly with the other patrons of the bar, yet she couldn't believe that she hadn't noticed him earlier. How long had he been here?

When she didn't make a move to take the beer from him, he opened it and set it down in front of her, then took the seat across from her without waiting to be invited, his own bottle in hand.

"Call me 'Li' here, there are too many people around," he said. His expression was pleasant enough, but his eyes were hard and calculating. Was he still angry with her? She couldn't tell.

"What are you doing here?" Misaki said carefully.

"The same thing you are." He made a small motion with his chin over his shoulder, towards the karaoke booth where his cousin and her friends were.

"I guessed that," she said, trying to pretend that she wasn't completely unnerved by his presence. He must have been watching Xu's apartment too - so he had probably seen Misaki there. "I meant, why are you sitting here talking to me, instead of lurking in a shadow somewhere? I'm supposed to stay away from you, remember?"

He gave her a wry look. "If you can break the rules, I can too. This place is too crowded; there aren't any shadows to 'lurk' in without drawing attention. Besides," he added more quietly, "you have a bad habit of getting in my way. If you know I'm here from the start, hopefully we can avoid that."

_Is he talking about…working together? Of course he isn't, don't be stupid._ "What did you say to Kanami?" Her friend was nowhere in sight.

Hei raised his eyebrows. He was being more expressive than he ever had when they were alone, she noticed, but he was still subdued compared to Li. It felt almost natural. "I asked her if she thought you'd let me buy you a drink, and she recommended this." He picked up his bottle. "Then she threatened me with bodily harm if I upset you."

Misaki cracked a smile. "Don't underestimate her."

"Don't worry."

Was he promising not to upset her? She felt a stab of guilt over their earlier conversation, and debated whether or not to bring it up, even to apologize. Maybe it would be best to just follow his lead.

Hei didn't say anything else though; he just sat there looking at her.

Misaki picked up the beer and took a swallow, to occupy the silence. Finally she said, "So since you're here, does this mean that you think I might be right, about Xu being involved in something?"

"It's like you said - too many coincidences." He turned his bottle in his hands as if studying it, but Misaki thought he was trying to decide something; she kept quiet and waited.

Finally he looked back to her. "I met with my contact in the park on Wednesday night to take possession of a flash drive. I didn't know who he was, or what was on the drive. As soon as he handed it over, the two other contractors attacked."

Misaki listened in silence, trying not to let her surprise show on her face. Whether or not he was angry with her, it seemed he still trusted her.

"I didn't know they were MSS," Hei continued, "but it didn't matter who they were; I'd been told that other organizations might be after the item. I handed it off the next morning. Later that day, Huang contacted us to say that there was a file missing from the flash drive, a key that allowed the other files to be read. He thought the contact must be trying to extort more money out of us."

Hei's eyes flicked to something over Misaki's shoulder. She was about to turn to see what had attracted his attention, when she noticed that one of Xu's roommates, the girl with the red glasses, was standing outside the karaoke booth and typing on her phone. Hei must be watching the booth in some sort of mirror or reflection in the bar behind her, she realized.

"So you went to talk to your contact that night?" Misaki asked. She'd noticed that Hei was refraining from using Iwakara's name. It was probably a good idea, in public as they were.

He moved his eyes back to her, and didn't answer. She felt her pulse quicken.

"H- Li?"

"What?" It was like he'd completely forgotten that he'd been talking.

"You went to see your contact?"

He blinked, and picked up his beer, but didn't drink. "He was hiding out at that motel near Ookayama. I asked him where the key was, and he said something about someone removing it from the flash drive while a girl distracted him, because this person didn't want him selling it. He looked like he'd been in a fight with someone; that must have happened sometime after he left the park the night before."

Misaki leaned forward so she could hear him better over the din of the bar. "Was the person he fought with the one who took the key? Who was that?"

Hei shrugged. "I didn't ask."

"What? Why not?"

"I didn't care," he said, as if it should be obvious. _Contractors_ , she thought to herself with a sigh of irritation. If one of her subordinates had neglected to ask such an important question during an interview, he'd be out on his ass.

"Alright," she said, leaning on the table and holding her bottle in both hands. "You didn't know it might be important. But we can probably assume that whoever he fought with was the person who didn't want him to sell whatever information he had?"

Hei nodded. "He also said something about this person sending the contractors who ambushed me to kill him, but that was wrong; they were after the flash drive."

"Maybe they were going to kill him after they stole the drive from you?"

"No," Hei said matter-of-factly. "There were two of them, and the contact was an easy target. If they wanted him dead, one would have killed him while the other distracted me and tried to take the item."

She could probably trust Hei's judgment on that; he knew better than she how contractors thought. "How does this connect to the laboratory fire, if your contact was at the motel? Why did he go to the lab?"

"He said he had a backup copy of the key in his office, so I met him there. He was pulling it off his computer when I noticed a piece of equipment rigged to start a fire; there was just enough time for me to get out. The contact was killed, and the key was destroyed along with his computer."

It gave Misaki chills, the way he could talk about such a close brush with death so casually. Then again, it was just a typical day at work for him, wasn't it. She stared down at her beer while she thought. "The MSS agents wanted the flash drive; presumably they'd want the key as well, so it doesn't make sense to destroy it. It doesn't make sense to kill Iw - the contact either, because they might need him to replace whatever information he was selling in the first place."

Hei listened to her think out loud, without interrupting. She felt his gaze on her, and kept her own eyes down so she could focus.

"So whoever set the fire was probably the same person who got into a fight with your contact, who didn't want him selling this information. If the key is destroyed, no one gets it. This person doesn't work for the MSS then." She tapped her fingers on the bottle. "But this person _is_ familiar with your contact, _and_ seems to have access to the laboratory." She glanced up at Hei then. "Is this…is this where Xu might fit in?"

Hei looked uncomfortable. He leaned in closer so that he could lower his voice even further. "I don't know. I have trouble believing that she has anything to do with this. But she was in the park while I was meeting with him, there was that message you found, she takes his class, and…" He hesitated. "She was in the hallway outside the lab right before the contact and I went in."

Misaki's eyes widened.

"That's one hell of a coincidence," she murmured. Hei nodded slightly, and there was something in eyes that looked like…sadness? He caught her staring at him and held her gaze. Misaki could sense without looking that if she moved her hands, gripping her bottle tightly, just an inch forward, her fingers would brush his.

"Ah-hem."

They both looked up, startled. Kanami was standing next to the table, her arm around the waist of a very tipsy, giggly woman that Misaki didn't know. Kanami's cheeks were flushed.

"I hate to interrupt, but you weren't answering your phone." Misaki hadn't even felt it buzz. Kanami continued, "We're going to go dancing at a club up the street. You can join us, but something tells me you'd rather stay here…"

Misaki felt her own cheeks turn as red as her friend's. "I'll be alright on my own, thanks Kanami."

"On your own, huh? Well, have fun." Kanami winked at her, then she and the other woman headed back to a group of people waiting by the door, weaving a little.

"Don't worry," Misaki said, turning back to Hei. "She won't tell anyone I was talking to you."

It seemed as if Hei hadn't heard her. He was just looking at her, frowning slightly. "How do you do that?"

"Do what?" she asked, confused.

"Distract me." He swept a hand across his face as if trying to wake himself up, a natural and uncalculated gesture that surprised her almost as much as his words, and looked away. Then his eyes narrowed. "Jiao-tu wasn't the only one the hallway. There was a man with her, and another woman - that woman."

He was looking over her shoulder again; Misaki glanced at the karaoke booth, where the girl in red glasses had just exited.

"I think that's one of her roommates," she said. They both watched the young woman take a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket, drop it, pick it up again, and stare at the karaoke booth for a long minute before heading towards the front the door.

"Keep your eyes on Jiao-tu," Hei said, standing abruptly.

"Wait," Misaki said before he could walk away. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm just going to watch." His eyes lingered on hers for a moment before he disappeared quickly into the crowd, leaving her alone at the table. Misaki felt a warm glow spread throughout her body. Maybe she hadn't dreamed that kiss after all.


	16. Chapter 16

The street outside was crowded with people, most of them drunk or well on their way. Hei spotted Jiao-tu's roommate standing near a group of smokers. He walked past the group and leaned against the wall of the building where he could still see her without being obvious. He watched as she took a cigarette from her pack and lit it with quavering hands.

_Is she nervous about something? Upset? Boyfriend stood her up, maybe?_

Hei didn't know if this woman was involved in the fire or not, but he thought it more likely to be her or that man than Jiao-tu. He was glad that Kirihara seemed to agree with him. He still wasn't sure that confiding in Kirihara was the best thing to do; but with her analytical mind, she would be able to get to the bottom of the situation faster than he could. And so far, she seemed trustworthy.

He was sure that she had Jiao-tu's best interest at heart, anyway, whatever her opinion was of him. Based on her visit to his apartment, her opinion wasn't exactly favorable - not that he could blame her. It had taken guts to approach him like that though. Of course, guts were not something that Kirihara Misaki could ever be accused of lacking.

The woman in the red glasses took out her phone and typed something. When she was finished, she didn't put it back in her pocket but just held it in her hand and took a long drag on her cigarette, pacing back and forth.

Hei was glad to be outside, although the cool night air stung his burns under their bandages. The bar had been noisy and oppressive, and it was hard to keep focused with Kirihara there. He hadn't wanted to approach her at all, but had started to consider it when other women, seeing him alone, kept propositioning him, even after he told them he was waiting for his date.

Then her friend had shown up, and he'd been so preoccupied with watching the way Kirihara smiled and laughed - what had she been laughing so hard at, anyway? - that he nearly forgot to keep his eyes on Jiao-tu. He'd thought then that maybe if he sat down with her, she'd stop smiling and they could discuss the situation without distractions. So when her friend got up for another drink, he took advantage of the opportunity.

But it didn't help. The way her brow furrowed when she was deep in thought was just as captivating as her laugh, and all he could think about was how soft her hair had felt in his hands the night she had kissed him. He hadn't even noticed when her friend came back. That was a problem; they were lucky it had been her friend, and not an enemy.

 _Emotions are unnecessary distractions_ , he reminded himself. Kirihara was, at best, just an asset, someone who he could use to help keep Jiao-tu safe until he understood what was going on. And at worst, she was a potential liability. She was probably hoping that by spending time with him and getting him to trust her, she could obtain information about the Syndicate. But Hei had had plenty of jobs that relied on seduction; he knew how to keep a woman interested without compromising himself, and he knew how to protect himself from such a ploy.

He wouldn't repeat the mistake he had made with Amber. He hadn't been able to protect Bai, but he could protect Jiao-tu.

The woman in the red glasses checked her phone, appearing to read a message. She didn't respond to the text and put her phone in her pocket. Then, oddly, she pulled a different phone out. She entered a text, then tucked that phone away as well. Hei scanned the area carefully, but didn't see anything of interest. Why did she have two phones?

The woman lingered outside for a few more minutes to finish her cigarette. Dropping it on the sidewalk, she stubbed it out with her shoe and then headed back inside the bar, Hei following at a discreet distance.

A wall of noise greeted him as he pushed through the door; the place seemed even more crowded than it had been when he left twenty minutes ago. The woman with the red glasses returned to the karaoke booth.

Hei started to head towards Kirihara's table, but realized with a start that it was now occupied by strangers. He looked around the bar carefully, but didn't see her anywhere. Had she decided to leave? No, she was too persistent to give up on a case that interested her so much; and he was sure that she hadn't followed him outside.

He'd asked her to watch Jiao-tu; the only reason Kirihara would have left was if Jiao-tu had. They hadn't gone out the front, so…he followed the sign pointing to the restrooms. Had Kirihara followed Jiao-tu in there? Hei considered for a moment. If he were following a target who knew his face, he would have waited outside rather than risk them seeing him in such a confined space; he was sure Kirihara would be smart enough to do the same. Not the restroom then. At the end of the hall was another door, with an exit sign above it. He couldn't think of a reason why Jiao-tu would have left out the back, but where else could she have gone? He should have stayed on Jiao-tu himself, and sent Kirihara out with the other woman.

Hei pushed open the back door just in time to hear a shot ring out.

~~~~o~~~~

Jiao-tu and Chihiro collapsed back onto the bench, laughing.

"Us next!" Liang said, pulling a barely conscious Umi to her feet and going through the music catalog.

Jiao-tu sipped her beer; this was her third. She was trying not to have too many since she and Tian were Skyping with her parents tomorrow - she'd made the mistake of talking with them hung over once, and of course her mother had noticed right away. She wondered if Tian had friends that he went out with. He should; he'd had lots of friends back home…then again, he wasn't quite the same friendly person that he used to be. Maybe she could convince him to go out with her, Mei-li, and Liang next weekend.

Liang and Umi had chosen their song, to the cheers of the rest of the girls. Between Liang's heavy accent and Umi's state of inebriation, they were sure to win the prize for worst rendition of the night.

Jiao-tu's phone buzzed in her back pocket. She pulled it out - a new text from Mei-li; where was Mei-li? She hadn't noticed her roommate leave the booth. She read the message: _I need to talk to you. Meet me behind the bar, there's a door by the restrooms_.

 _Strange_. _What does she want?_ Jiao-tu set down her beer; the others were engrossed in Liang and Umi's performance, laughing with them and heckling. She texted back to let Mei-li know she was coming; it must be important, or she would have just talked to her here or at home. After pulling on her jacket, Jiao-tu left the booth and made her way laboriously through the crowded bar towards the restrooms. They were down a hall; at the end of the hall was a door with an exit sign.

Jiao-tu paused. Why did Mei-li want to talk to her out back, instead of in the front of the building? Were the bar patrons even allowed to go out this door? She didn't see anything that looked like a warning sign, so she pushed open the door. To her relief, no emergency alarms sounded.

She stepped out into a long, dark alleyway, cluttered with crates and stacks of delivery boxes. Jiao-tu shivered. It was a little creepy out here. It reminded her of the park.

"Mei-li?" There was no sign of her roommate. Wait - there was a woman standing at one end the alley, outlined in the neon glow from the street, waving to her. Breathing a sigh of relief, Jiao-tu trotted down the alley towards her.

"What are you doing out -" Suddenly a large hand clamped down over her mouth while an arm pinned her against someone's chest, catching her arms. She tried to scream, but no sound could escape her throat. Jiao-tu dug at his arm with her fingers, but her attacker didn't let up.

" _Stop struggling_ ," he hissed in her ear.

The woman from the end of the alley ran up to them - it wasn't Mei-li, Jiao-tu realized, but a Chinese woman she didn't know. " _Give us your phone_ ," the woman said. " _And tell us what you told the police._ " She had a hard look in her eyes.

"Idiots!" A voice shouted in Japanese from somewhere behind the man who held her. "We don't need her alive, just take the phone!"

Jiao-tu liked to tell people that she knew kung fu because she'd taken lessons at the school for about a year, but she'd been terrible, so she’d quit. However, her father and grandfather wouldn't let her quit until she knew at least one move, one which she'd had plenty of opportunity to practice on her brother (and one very-ex-boyfriend). It was practically instinctual now. She could hardly think through her rising panic, but the threat in the second man's words galvanized her into action.

Taking a wide step to the side, she swung her knee into the back of her attacker's knee, throwing him off balance just enough that his grip on her loosened. Before he could recover, she twisted and slammed her elbow into his diaphragm. The man dropped to his knees, wheezing, and Jiao-tu threw herself bodily at the woman before she had a chance to make a grab for her.

They both fell to the ground, the other woman's head hitting the concrete with an audible thud. Jiao-tu jumped to her feet. Dragons could fight, but rabbits could run. She sprinted towards the end of the alley, desperate to get back out onto the main street with its crowds. A cross street was up ahead, just past a large dumpster; from there she could turn and run back up the block to the safety of other people.

She was nearly to the cross street when a heavy wooden pallet slammed into her hip, knocking her to the ground. Jiao-tu struggled to push it off of her.

"This is what happens when you send humans to do even a simple job," a man's voice sighed. "Good thing I decided to tag along."

Jiao-tu twisted to look behind her. A broad-shouldered man was strolling casually up the alley towards her, highlighted in some kind of blue light. Jiao-tu stared wide-eyed, and renewed her efforts at freeing herself.

"Where do you keep your phone - I wouldn't want to damage it," the man was saying. "Probably not near your head."

She heard a rumbling sound and looked up - the dumpster across from her was starting to shake and slide towards her, seemingly of its own volition.

"Poor drunk college girl, wanders into an alley and gets crushed by a -" A gunshot reverberated in the alleyway, and the dumpster stopped moving. Afraid to look behind her, Jiao-tu gave one final shove and pushed the pallet off of her legs. Her hip was screaming in pain, but she ignored it and staggered to her feet. She could reach the street, she had to.

A hand grabbed her arm, and she screamed.

"It's okay, Xu, it's okay!" a familiar voice said. Jiao-tu looked at her captor in surprise.

"Chief…Kirihara?"

The police chief nodded, her face grim. "You're safe with me, okay?" She was speaking slowly, as if Jiao-tu was a deer that would bolt at the slightest startle.

"Okay," Jiao-tu managed, her breaths coming in short gasps. "What -" They heard footsteps running up behind them, and Kirihara let go of Jiao-tu's arm to aim her gun, then lowered it as a man ran up.

"Is she alright?" Jiao-tu never would have guessed that that cold voice belonged to Tian if she hadn't seen him speak.

Kirihara was nodding. "She's okay. I'll call -"

"No," Tian cut in, his voice hard. "She's not safe here. I'll clean up and find out what I can, you get her away."

Jiao-tu could only watch, dazed. What was Tian doing here? Kirihara looked like she was going to argue with him, but he leaned over, gripping her arm, and said something in a low voice that Jiao-tu didn't quite catch; Kirihara nodded, her face set. She took Jiao-tu's arm again.

"We need to go," she said, pulling Jiao-tu towards the street.

"But…" Jiao-tu looked back. Tian was making his way back down the alley, where the man who had glowed blue was lying on the ground; her cousin hadn't so much as looked at her.

"He'll be fine," the police chief was saying. "Come on, it's not safe to stay."

With one final look at Tian, Jiao-tu allowed Kirihara to lead her out into the main street.


	17. Chapter 17

"Third step, third step," Misaki muttered to herself as she groped under the third step down from the second floor landing. "He could have at least told me _which_ third step."

She stood up and rounded the corner to the flight of stairs leading from the second floor to the third, and reached under that third step. Her fingers brushed a small metal object. _Finally!_ She withdrew the key and returned to where Xu was waiting in front of apartment 212, leaning against the door frame to keep as much weight as possible off her bruised hip. Misaki was a little disappointed that it hadn't been apartment 201.

They were at a large apartment complex just a few blocks north of the Roppongi nightlife district, the type that catered to office workers: utilitarian and compact. Misaki was glad that they hadn't had to try and get back to Ookayama. She was exhausted, Xu was limping horribly, and they were probably safest someplace completely unconnected to either Xu or Misaki.

"Here we go," she told Xu. She put the key in the lock, then hesitated. Should she knock? Hei hadn't said anything about whose place this was, he'd just given her the address and told her where to find the key (sort of). He probably would have mentioned it if there would be a problem with them just walking in. Misaki turned the key and pushed open the door, her gun ready in her other hand just in case.

The lights were off. Misaki went in ahead of Xu. "Wait here," she told the other woman, and leaving Xu in the tiny entryway, she flicked on the lights and moved in to sweep the apartment. It was a small square, broken up into a galley-style kitchen that opened into a living room; a bedroom; and a tiny bathroom. It only took Misaki a minute to clear.

"Alright," she said, returning to Xu and holstering her gun. "Why don't you go sit down on the sofa. I'll see if there's any ice for your hip."

"Who lives here?" Xu asked, moving carefully into the living room, where a short sofa faced away from the door and towards an old boxy television set.

Misaki turned the deadbolt on the door, turned the second deadbolt, and slid the chain into place. _Pretty heavy security for a simple office worker; this must be one of his safe houses_. "I'm not sure," she told Xu. "A friend of your cousin's, I guess."

She tossed her blazer onto the back of the sofa and moved into the kitchen. At first glance, the apartment looked lived in: fully furnished, curtains around the windows, pictures on the walls. But now that Misaki was looking more carefully, she decided that her guess that this was a safe house was probably right. There were no people in any of the pictures, no dirty dishes in the sink, no knickknacks or worn paperbacks sitting out on the coffee table. No one lived here.

The refrigerator was empty except for a few condiments and frozen vegetables, but there was an automatic ice maker and some ice in the tray. Misaki wrapped some in a dish towel for Xu. "We should probably get a doctor to look at that," she said. "But unfortunately we need to wait until we understand what's going on before we move."

"It's not so bad," Xu said, taking the ice and holding it on her hip, wincing. "I could walk alright. Some aspirin might help though."

"Aspirin…give me a minute to look around." If this was a safe house, surely there would be a first aid kit with some kind of pain reliever. The kitchen cupboards turned up nothing except some instant meals and basic cooking supplies. She found what she was looking for in the bathroom, in the little cupboard under the sink: a first kit worthy of a trained field medic. You could perform minor surgery with the contents of that box. A bottle of ibuprofen was nestled in between some vials containing drugs that Misaki was pretty sure were illegal to possess, at least without a medical license.

Misaki fetched a glass of water for Xu to take the pills, then sat down next to her on the sofa.

"Where you and Tian on a date?" Xu asked her abruptly.

Misaki felt her cheeks flush. "What? No! We just happened to run into each other there." She would have expected Xu's first question to be about the contractor and the people who had attacked her; maybe she just didn't want to think about it? Misaki didn't really want to think about it. Now that they had time to stop and breathe, she kept hearing the echo of a gunshot in her mind.

"Oh." Xu sounded a little disappointed. "It's lucky you were there though. I didn't think I could be any more scared than I was in the park. I'm so tired of being afraid," she added, mostly to herself.

Misaki felt for her, but there was no way to sugarcoat things. "Xu, I'm going to be honest with you, so I need you to be honest with me, okay?"

Xu looked confused, but she nodded her head.

Misaki continued, "I was at the bar tonight because I was following you. I had a hunch that you might be in trouble, but it was just a hunch. I haven't told my department about it, and I'm here off duty."

Xu's eyes widened a little. "Is that we ran instead of calling the police? But, why would I be in trouble?"

"We ran because I still don't understand exactly why you're in danger; it seemed like the most prudent thing to do would be to get someplace safe, then try and figure things out and act from there."

Her first instinct had been to call dispatch, but then Hei had taken her arm and said, _It's too messy to bring in the police; Jiao-tu comes first. Please._ It was the 'please' that had done it. That, and his hand on her arm.

She hoped he would be here soon; she felt too vulnerable without backup. "Do you have any idea who those people in that alley were?"

"One of them, maybe, the one you killed - he was a contractor, right?"

Misaki frowned. "You know about contractors?" Had Hei told her?

"A little. That man - there was blue light around him…that must have been synchrotron radiation, so he was probably a contractor. He was trying to squash me with the dumpster." She shuddered. "He would have killed me if you hadn't shot him."

Misaki saw a sudden image of a bullet tearing into a man's back, the man crumpling to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

"I don't know who the other two were," Xu continued. "They said to give them my phone, and asked what I told the police. It didn't make any sense. Then the other guy, the contractor, he said to just take my phone, that they didn't need me alive. What is going on?" There was a pleading note in her voice.

"We're going to try and figure that out," Misaki told her gently. "Why they would want your phone?"

Xu shook her head again, and pulled a purple phone from her back pocket. "I don't know. It's just a phone."

Misaki took the phone from the girl. It was the same one they'd found in the park.

Suddenly the phone buzzed in her hand and a voice shouted " _Tutturoo!_ " Both women jumped, and Misaki nearly dropped the phone.

"Sorry, just a text message," Xu said, taking it back and adjusting the volume. "It's from a show," she added sheepishly.

"That's fine," Misaki said, her heart pounding. "Who is the message from?"

Xu tapped the screen. "Just my roommate asking where I disappeared to. Um, what should I tell her?"

"Don't tell her anything for now - wait, which roommate?"

"Sun Liang."

Misaki frowned. "Is she the one with the red glasses?"

"No, that's -" A knock sounded twice on the door, causing them to both jump again.

"Stay here," Misaki said. Holding her gun at the ready, she cautiously approached the door and looked out the peephole. _Hei._ She sighed in relief. "It's alright," she called back to Xu, and undid the locks to let him in.

"Any problems?" was all the greeting he gave.

"No," Misaki replied, re-holstering her weapon and locking the door behind him.

"Tian!" Xu levered herself up off the sofa, and said something in Chinese.

"Use Japanese," Hei told her. "What's wrong, are you hurt?"

"Just a bruise," she assured him as he came around the front of the sofa to hug her. His visible relief at seeing her safe dispelled any lingering doubts Misaki may have had about whether he truly cared for his cousin. He helped Xu back onto the cushions, then leaned against the half-wall the separated the kitchen from the living room, allowing Misaki to take the other side of the sofa; it was only big enough for two.

"What were you doing in that alleyway?" Hei asked Xu. His face and his voice both betrayed his tiredness.

"I went to go talk to my roommate. She sent me a text asking me to meet her there."

"Which roommate? The one with the red glasses?"

"How -"

"Just answer," Hei said, a little too shortly.

"Those attackers were obviously waiting for you," Misaki explained, casting a warning look at Hei. This was no time for him to suddenly start acting like a contractor. "Someone must have told them you were coming."

"I thought they were just trying to mug me," Xu said uncertainly.

"What did you tell me earlier? That they wanted your phone, and said something about the police?" Misaki asked.

"Yeah. The woman told me to tell her what I said to the police - I didn't know what she was talking about."

"They knew you were at the crime scene in the park," Hei said, "because the police used the Chinese Embassy to translate your statement. Did you tell anyone that you'd lost your phone?"

"Wait," Misaki said. "Are we just assuming they were MSS?"

"Not assuming," Hei said darkly. She remembered then what he had said when she and Xu had left: that he was going to 'clean up' and find out what he could. She wasn't sure she wanted to know what that entailed. Actually, she was pretty sure that she didn't.

Xu was looking between the two of them. "I don't understand."

Misaki looked at Hei. "I need to tell her at least some of it."

He sat down on the floor and nodded, leaning his head against the wall and closing his eyes.

She turned to Xu. "What you saw in the park was an interrupted selling of information. Your professor, Iwakara Sachio, had a flash drive containing some kind of valuable files that he was selling to an unknown organization. The two men who were killed that night were agents belonging to the Chinese MSS, who tried to steal that flash drive. Something was missing from it though, a key that allowed the other files to be read. Iwakara thought that someone had stolen the key on purpose, to keep him from selling the information. This person is presumably the one who set fire to his laboratory, killing him."

Xu was listening wide-eyed. "But, what does that have to do with me?"

"I don't know," Misaki admitted. "Apparently your phone is involved. We found it in the park, and it was in our possession for almost twenty-four hours - somehow these MSS agents from tonight knew that. Did you let anyone use it, or borrow it recently?"

"No."

"Didn't you tell me that you had dropped it earlier?" Hei said from the floor, still not opening his eyes.

"Oh, that's right," Xu said. "I dropped my bag outside of Iwakara's office, and it fell out. Arakawa picked it up for me."

"Who's Arakawa?" Misaka asked.

"Arakawa Hiro. He's - he was - Professor Iwakara's research and teaching assistant."

_Now that's interesting_. "He just picked up your phone and handed it back to you?"

"Um…" Xu paused, thinking back. "He gave it back to me after I left the office, maybe ten minutes later?"

Misaki raised her eyebrows. "That's certainly long enough to do something - but what?"

"The key," Hei said. "Iwakara left the flash drive on his desk; this Arakawa removed the key, but needed a place to hide it. Jiao-tu drops her phone, he picks it up, and transfers the key to it. Then all he has to do is wait until everything has blown over, and find an excuse to borrow Jiao-tu's phone and get it back."

"Wait!" Misaki exclaimed. "Before we knew who the phone belonged to, I had our tech lab go over it. They didn't find anything suspicious, but there was one file that looked corrupted - pages of text that looked like nonsense. I bet that's the key that Arakawa stole."

"Arakawa?" Xu said.

"Is he the one who was with you in the hallway, right before the lab caught fire?" Hei asked her.

"How - "

Misaki laid a hand on her wrist. "Please just answer. Was Arakawa with you?"

Xu nodded. "Mei-li needed to pick up her assignment. Iwakara hadn't been in class that day, so she was hoping that it would just be Arakawa in the office. We met him in the hallway; he was just leaving because he'd forgotten his key and couldn't get in."

"So he's the one who set the fire," Misaki said. "He was just making an excuse to get you two out of the hallway."

"What? No, he wouldn't!" Xu protested. "It was as much his research as Iwakara's, he wouldn't destroy it! And how could he kill the professor?"

"He probably didn't know the professor was there. And he must really have wanted to protect this information, to go to such extremes." Misaki leaned forward with her chin on her hand. "I wonder what that information was? Something from his classified research?"

"Um, Arakawa said…" Xu began.

"What?" Misaki prompted her.

"Well, while we were watching them put out the fire. He said that the professor was researching a way to interfere with contractor's powers, maybe even strip them of their powers completely. But Arakawa talked like he hated contractors - wouldn't he _want_ that information to get out?"

Misaki frowned. "Some kind of anti-contractor device? Any agency would certainly kill for that; such technology could put China back on the map in regards to contractor affairs."

"Oh…wait a minute." Xu put the heel of her hand to her forehead. "When I went to Iwakara's office…I heard him arguing with Arakawa. Arakawa told me they disagreed about grading papers, but that's not what I heard. They were talking about…Pandora? I'm sure I heard Pandora mentioned once or twice."

"Hm, he wants to give it to Pandora? I'll buy that," Misaki said. "Except for the MSS - how do they fit? Did Arakawa tell them about the flash drive, and where to find the key? Why would he do that, if he wanted the research to go to Pandora?"

Hei spoke up. "The roommate."

Xu was looking confused again. "What?"

"Jiao-tu, who is the girl with the red glasses?" Hei asked her.

"My roommate. Long Mei-li."

Hei opened his eyes. "Long?"

"Yes. You don't know her, do you?" Xu asked.

"No." He gave Misaki a significant look. "But 'long' means 'dragon' in Chinese."

Misaki's eyes widened. "Oh, damn. What was she doing when she was outside?"

"She sent a text, and received a response. Then she sent another text on a different phone."

"Damn," Misaki said again. Xu had said that it was a text message that led her out into the alley behind the bar. The other phone must have been a burner that 'Dragon' was using to communicate with the other MSS agents.

"What are you talking about?" Xu said, tears starting to form in her eyes.

Hei just closed his eyes again, leaving Misaki to explain. _Damn him_.

"Xu," she said as gently as she could, "it sounds like your roommate is working for the Chinese intelligence service. She must have been the one to tip off the MSS about the research, and told them where you were tonight."

Xu was shaking her head. "No, she wouldn't do anything like that. She's my friend, my best friend!"

"She might not have known they were going to hurt you," Misaka said. She didn't know if it was true or not. "Although, it still doesn't explain how she knew the key was on your phone. Did she know the police had it?"

"Yes," Xu said. "I used her phone to call you."

"Was Long friends with Arakawa? Do you know if she talked to him at all, after you lost your phone?"

"Not friends," Xu said hesitantly. "But…she told me that after I left the fire, she told Arakawa that I had been acting strange, and that my phone had ended up with the police."

Misaki frowned in thought. "So, we have two different players here. Arakawa, who was trying to get the research to Pandora, and hid the key on Xu's phone. Long, who was probably spying on Iwakara and told the MSS about the buy. Long mentions to Awakara that Xu lost her phone and the police found it; he asks her about it, maybe tries to get her to remove the file from the phone for him. Long passes that information on to her handler, and they set up an ambush to steal Xu's phone and take the key. It's plausible…but what use is the key without the rest of the files? It wasn't the MSS that Iwakara sold them to, and the fire destroyed the research data." She half hoped that Hei would speak up then, about the fate of the files; but of course he didn't.

Xu was shaking her head again. "Not Mei-li. She wouldn't do anything like that."

"Well, we don't know anything for sure yet," Misaki allowed. "But in the meantime, don't try to contact her; we can't risk anyone finding out where you are right now."

"I hate this," Xu muttered.

"Maybe you should try and get some rest," Misaki suggested. She could feel her own exhaustion pulling at her - all that coffee had finally worn off. "Things may look different in the morning. I saw a futon in the bedroom; I can help you set it up."

But Xu looked to her cousin. "You never said what _you're_ doing here. How do you know about the MSS, and all this? You told me you were going to go to bed early tonight."

"I lied," Hei said simply, not looking at his cousin.

Xu stared at him. "You never lie."

"I'm not the same person I was ten years ago."

"Wait." Her eyes grew even wider. "You said you burned your arm in a kitchen fire. But…you knew I was outside Iwakara's laboratory with Mei-li and Arakawa. You…were you there?"

There was a note of sadness in Hei's voice. "Yes, I was. But that's not something I can talk to you about, Xiao-tu."

Xu stood up, dropping the ice pack. "Don't call me that! You don't get to call me that!" She added something else in Chinese, then limped to the bedroom and pulled the shoji door shut.

"Should I go talk to her?" Misaki asked. Hei didn't respond, just closed his eyes again and leaned his head against the wall. She wasn't sure he'd heard her at all.

Misaki unstrapped her gun harness and set it on the coffee table, then walked over to the bedroom. She knocked softly on the door. "Xu? I'm coming in."

Xu was sitting in the middle of the empty room, hugging her knees tightly to her chest. Misaki closed the door, then went to sit down next to her. "Are you alright?"

"No," Xu said bitterly. "My best friend is some kind of spy who tried to kill me, and I don't even know who Tian is anymore."

"How long have you known Long?"

Xu sniffed, trying to hold back tears. "Since our first class at Tokodai. We've been roommates since last semester. I thought she was my friend."

"It's possible that she doesn't know what this is about either, or that the attackers would hurt you." Misaki said. "She may have only been set to spy on Iwakara because she was in his class; it wasn't her fault or yours that you ended up in the middle of everything."

"Do you think they paid her?"

"I don't know - probably, I guess. Why?"

Xu stared at her feet. "Mei-li's family doesn't have very much money; she was only able to go to school because she won a scholarship. She saves as much as she can and sends it back to China."

"That could certainly explain why she started working for the MSS," Misaki agreed. "People will do a lot that they wouldn't normally do, if it's to take care of their family."

Xu sniffed again. "Family. Tian doesn't care about his family."

"That's not true," Misaki told her sharply.

"It is true! He left us and never came back! He must have left Xing too, or why isn't she here? He hasn't told me one true thing since I met him!"

"Maybe he hasn't told you the truth about everything," Misaki said, "but why do you think he was at the bar tonight? He followed you there, just like I did, because he wanted to keep you safe."

"You mean, he was working with you?"

Misaki hesitated, then nodded. They _had_ been working together, hadn't they. It was a strange thought - her, teaming up with BK-201. She was starting to have trouble thinking of him as BK-201 anymore; he was just Hei. "I've only known Li for a few weeks, really, but I trust him with my life." As she said them, she realized that the words were true. "I know you can trust him, too."

"Maybe," Xu conceded, burying her face in her arms.

"Why don't you try to get some sleep?" Misaki said. "I saw a sleep aid in the first aid kit, do you think that would help?"

"Okay."

Misaki fetched the pills and a glass of water from the bathroom, then helped Xu unfold the futon and get settled. "You're safe here, alright? Li and I will be right outside." She left the bedroom, sliding the door closed softly behind her.


	18. Chapter 18

She found Hei in the kitchen, stirring some instant rice and frozen vegetables in a wok. The sight was so strangely domestic that for a moment it threw her, and she forgot that she was hiding out in a safe house with the Black Reaper. Actually, she wasn't entirely sure that that had even sunken in yet.

"What did you tell her?" Hei asked without looking up.

"That she can trust you. Us. Nothing more specific than that. It was hard enough for her to hear about her roommate - I think she's going to need some time to process." Misaki leaned against the fridge and watched him, fascinated by the way his arms moved. She'd been a little jealous earlier, seeing those arms around Xu.

"Why are you cooking?" she asked, mainly to forestall a dangerous train of thought.

Hei raised an eyebrow. "I'm hungry."

"Oh. Wait, is cooking…" she cut herself off before she could say 'your payment.' Some contractors were reticent about their price, especially if such knowledge made them vulnerable.

But Hei must have known what she was going to say, because he answered, "No, it's not. Cooking helps me…re-center myself, I guess."

Misaki smiled. "I see. I swim for that."

He added some more oil to the wok, and tossed the mixture. "I know. Yin told me."

"You had Yin watching me?" she said with a start. She'd thought he trusted her a little more than that.

"No. She keeps an eye on people she worries about, on her own," Hei said with a slight upturning of his mouth that was almost like a smile. "She asked me one day why you were always in the water."

Not for the first time, Misaki wished that she could see specters. She liked the idea of Yin watching over her. "What did you tell her?"

He shrugged, and pulled two bowls out of the cupboard. "That I didn't know. Do you want some?"

"Sure."

There was no table in the little kitchen, so they sat side by side on the sofa to eat. It was almost cozy. Misaki couldn't help but be reminded of the last time they had eaten together. "Was it true?" she asked abruptly. "What you told me before, about how you learned to cook?"

"It was true."

That surprised her; she was gratified that he had willingly told her something personal like that.

"What do we do now?" she asked. "You know where the key you're looking for is."

"I'm not looking for it."

Misaki blinked at him. "What do you mean? I thought -"

"My employers are looking for it. My orders were to get it from Iwakara. He didn't have it, or know where it was. My job is over, unless I receive orders otherwise. And I haven't."

_Sometimes rational thought comes in handy._ But she knew that concern for Xu was his underlying motivation, which made it decidedly _ir_ rational. "The MSS are probably still looking for Xu."

"We can deal with that in the morning; she's safe for now."

"So, is there anything I need to know, that you didn't want to say in front of her?" she asked, more to keep him talking than out of any real desire for information.

"Not really." Hei stood up and went into the kitchen for another helping. "The contractor you shot was dead. The woman told me that there had been another man there, but he must have run."

Misaki nodded. "He took off when I opened the door; I was about to chase after him, but then I noticed the contractor and focused on him instead."

"The man isn't important; just a thug who does brute work for the MSS, same as the woman. She didn't know anything except that they were ordered to obtain the phone."

Misaki pushed a pea around in her bowl. "I shouldn't have killed the contractor. If I'd just disabled him, I could've taken Xu away while you questioned him; I bet he knew more."

"Not necessarily." He finished his latest bowl. "You saved Jiao-tu's life."

Misaki continued stabbing at the pea. "Maybe if I'd arrived there sooner, I could have gotten control of the situation - I thought she had gone into the restroom, and only checked the alley just in case I was wrong; but I waited too long."

"It's useless to second guess decisions made in the field," Hei told her. Then he added quietly, "Would it be strange for me to tell you that you did the right thing?"

"I don't need your approval," she said a little testily.

Hei gave her a long look. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She ate the pea, as if that would somehow prove that she was fine, instead of envisioning the dead contractor falling to the ground, over and over again, the gunshot ringing loud in her ears.

"Was that the first time you've killed someone?"

Misaki wanted to say no, but had a feeling that he would know it was a lie. Instead of answering, she got up to wash her bowl.

"I should have followed Jiao-tu myself," Hei said, following her into the kitchen to help wash up. "Then you wouldn't have had to kill him."

Misaki scrubbed her bowl forcefully. "I'm a section chief of the Metropolitan Police Department. I know full well that I may be required to use lethal force on a suspect at any time, and I've always been prepared for that eventuality." Even as she echoed the words that she'd heard over and over again from academy instructors, she felt their hollowness. "I didn't hesitate when I saw him threatening Xu, and I don't regret it. Whether you killed him or I did, the end result would have been the same."

Hei leaned over and took the bowl from her hands, his shoulder pressing against hers. "There's being prepared to take a life, and then there's actually doing it."

"What would you know about it!" she snapped. As if a contractor ever felt guilt or remorse for the things they did. Suddenly unable to bear being in the same space as him, she left him to the dishes and returned to the sofa. Her head was starting to hurt. She took off her glasses and massaged her temples.

A few minutes later, Hei sat down on the sofa next to her, carefully, as if expecting her to snap at him again. She did her best to ignore him. Then he said, in a voice so quiet that she almost didn't hear, "I was still human. The first time I killed a man."

Misaki wasn't sure if she'd heard correctly. "You…what?"

Hei leaned forward, elbows on his knees. She could see the tension across his back. Did he ever truly relax?

"Do you want to know how my parents died?" he asked, not looking at her.

"I…" Did she? "You don't have to tell me."

Hei waited a long moment, seeming to gather his thoughts, then began. "You remember what it was like after the Gates first appeared. People were panicking, and there were all kinds of stories about disappearances and strange events. The government in my hometown imposed an early curfew, to help keep the public under control."

"It was the same here," Misaki said, then mentally berated herself for interrupting.

But Hei just nodded. "A few days after the Gates appeared, I was on my way home from my grandfather's martial arts school, where I went every day after my classes. I had to run to get home before the curfew. But when I got there, I could hear shouts from inside. I snuck in as quietly as I could, and when I reached the main room, I saw my father lying on the floor, and my mother holding him, crying and shouting at my sister."

"Your sister?" Misaki felt a lump forming in the pit of her stomach.

"She was just standing there, like she was in shock. Xing had been acting strangely in the last couple of days, but it seemed like a normal response, at first. Even though I'd never seen anyone die before, I could tell right away that my father was dead. I started to go into the room, but then my mother said, 'How could you do this? What kind of monster are you?', and I realized that she was shouting at Xing.

"Xing answered, completely void of emotion: 'Family bonds are meaningless. Why don't you understand that?' Our mother just broke down sobbing then, and most of what she said was incoherent, but she said something about not being able to live without Father. Then Xing said, 'Oh, I see.' And before I knew what was happening, she'd reached out her hand, and Mother was dead."

"Oh god," Misaki breathed, horrified. She'd never suspected that his sister had been a contractor. She wondered what her ability was, but didn't ask; if Hei wanted to tell her, he would.

"Then she turned to me, and said, 'You understand, don't you, Brother?'"

"What did you do?" Misaki asked, afraid of the answer.

"Nothing. Before I could react, she fell asleep."

"She…"

"It was her price." There was a note of bitterness in Hei's voice. "I thought she was dead too, at first. When I felt her pulse, I carried her back to her bedroom. I didn't understand what had happened, but I couldn't call the police - they would take her away, and I was sure I would never see her again if that happened. And I was afraid to call my grandfather or uncle - what if she tried to kill them too?

"She woke up a couple of hours later, and was confused as to why I was so upset. All she could say was that killing our parents had been the logical thing to do; she didn't show any kind of remorse or grief. Eventually I convinced her that we should run, that if anyone ever found out what happened they would lock her up. At first she just claimed that she would kill anyone who tried, as if it would be the easiest thing in the world; but she conceded after I explained that if she started killing cops left and right, they would just shoot her. So we packed a bag, I took as much money as I could find, and we left.

"I kept thinking that she would snap out of it, return to her old self, but she didn't change. We couldn't stay too long in any one place, because eventually Xing would kill someone, for some reason that only made sense to her. New contractors have trouble restraining themselves; they have to learn that even if an action is rational at the moment, there are long-term consequences they need to consider. It was especially hard for Xing, being so young and inexperienced at living even as a normal human. It was up to me to make sure that we stayed safe; but I was her older brother, that was my job anyway."

"Weren't you afraid that she would kill you?" Misaki asked.

Hei paused, as if the idea had never occurred to him. "No," he answered at last. "It was always in her best interest that I stayed alive; we both knew it. She was completely vulnerable while she paid her price, and I was willing to do whatever I had to do to protect her.

"About a month after we'd left home, we ran out of money. Xing figured out that she could use her power to rob ATMs; I didn't like it, but it was better than her killing and robbing a person, which she was completely willing to do. One night, she was stealing the money while I stood guard. I noticed a man down the street, watching us. As we headed back to the tenement where we were staying, he followed."

Misaki noticed that, just as in the park when he was translating Xu's statement, as he continued speaking his voice grew colder and harder. She realized now that it wasn't because he was just no longer bothering to feign emotion, like she'd thought earlier, but that it was more like a defense mechanism: despite being a contractor now, these memories were still painful for him.

Impulsively, she reached over and laid her hand on top of his. He didn't pull away like she feared he would, but instead turned his hand so that he could hold hers. His hand was rough and calloused, but warm.

Hei didn't look at her, he hadn't since he'd started speaking. "I didn't know if he'd seen Xing using her power, or if he'd seen us taking the money. I didn't know if he would tell anyone, or try anything. But we couldn't risk it; I didn't need Xing to tell me that killing him would be the rational thing to do. I told her to go back to our room, that I would take care of it. Xing wasn't very good then at regulating when she had to pay her price; she could fall asleep at any minute. But I think the real reason that I did it, was because I was starting to forget what she had been like, before the Gates, and I couldn't bear to see my sister kill one more person.

"The man had stopped outside the entrance to the tenement. I doubled back and got around behind him. I didn't want to kill him, I didn't want to kill anyone, but I wanted to protect Xing more than anything; and once I had decided that, it was almost easy. I had taken a hunting knife when we left home, from my father's fishing gear. The man was taller than me, and stronger, but I was faster. One thrust to his kidney dropped him to the ground. It took me two tries to open his throat, but the pain from the kidney wound was so debilitating that he couldn't struggle much.

"It wasn't until the next morning that it really hit me, what I'd done. And even then, I told myself that it had been necessary. Xing didn't say anything about it."

Misaki didn't know if she'd ever heard anything so tragic. "How old were you?" she asked quietly.

Hei paused to think. "Xing was nine, so I was…twelve? Probably. We lasted another couple of months on our own, before the organization finally tracked us down. They told Xing that if she agreed to work for them, they would train her to use her ability and provide her with whatever she needed - education, clothes, food, a place to live. They told me that they would use ME to erase my memories of the past few months, our parents' deaths, and of what my sister had become. I could go back home."

"But you refused."

Hei nodded. "She was still my sister; I couldn't abandon her. I told them they weren't taking Xing without me. They were paramilitary men, armed and prepared to take on dangerous contractors; they just laughed at me. But Xing told them that it was necessary I stay with her, and that I'd already killed someone and would do it again; so they agreed to take me as well.

"Xing became Bai, and I became Hei. I went with her on all her missions as backup, and was sent on missions of my own. Those were the hardest. Killing a man to protect my sister was one thing, but even after months of training and preparation, assassination seemed like something I could never do. But then I thought about my sister being left alone and vulnerable without me, and I followed my orders and killed whoever they told me to.

"By the end of Heaven's War, I was the Black Reaper; just as deadly as any contractor, and more ruthless. You can bargain with a contractor; but not me. Every person I left alive was a person who might kill Bai the next day."

He had been human during the South American conflict? It was almost impossible to believe. "What happened to your sister?" Misaki asked carefully.

Hei's hold on her hand tightened a little. "I don't know. After Heaven's Gate disappeared, she was gone without a trace, and I was a contractor."

"Do you think that you made the right choice?" Misaki asked. "Staying with her?" She tried to imagine what she would do in such circumstances. She didn't have any siblings, but she thought that there wasn't much that she wouldn't do to protect her friends or her team.

"No," Hei said. "I'm sure it was wrong. If there was any part of Xing still left inside of Bai, she would have been horrified at what she had become, at what I had become; it probably would have been best for her if I'd just killed her that first night, when our parents died. But if I had the chance to go back…I'd do the same thing."

He leaned back tiredly into the cushions, still holding her hand. "Anyway, my point is - I do understand how you feel; you feel guilty for killing a person, and that's a good thing. It means you're human. But you're not like me. What you did truly was the right thing to do. You'll be okay."

She did feel better. Not just because of Hei's reassurances, but also because he had told her something so personal in order to try and comfort her.

"I'm sorry," Misaki told him. "For what I said this afternoon."

"You couldn't have known."

"I still shouldn't have said it."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Misaki processing everything that he had told her, and enjoying the feeling of his hand around hers. He ran his thumb idly along her knuckles, and she felt her spine tingling in response.

"What was it like?" she asked suddenly. "Becoming a contractor?"

Hei shrugged. "Nothing changed. I didn't even realize that I was a contractor at first. I was a heartless killer before, and I'm a heartless killer now."

He said it like it was of no consequence, but Misaki could hear the pain in his voice. He hated what he was. She leaned her head against his shoulder. "Then why do I feel so safe with you?"

Hei released her hand. She thought he was going to push her away, but instead he reached behind her and placed his hand on the curve of her waist. She tucked her feet underneath her on the sofa and let him pull her closer. "Because you are," he said softly.


	19. Chapter 19

Hei was seated on the bank of the still pool when Amber found him, leaning back against the gnarled roots of a towering tree and listening with eyes closed to the steady hum of insects that never seemed to stop, day or night. Amber's quiet passage through the undergrowth was like a swirling eddy in the stream of sound.

"Aren't you on watch with Bai?" he asked, not opening his eyes as she approached him from behind.

He heard the pause in her step, and could picture the small smile curving her lips. "Will I ever be able to catch you off guard?" she said, mostly to herself.

"Bai?" Hei repeated, opening his eyes. Ghostly mist was beginning to form over the shadowed water as night drew closer. Normally he tried to get some sleep when Bai had duties that didn't require his presence; but today the camp had felt too claustrophobic, his tent even more so.

Amber sat down next to him, tucking herself in between him and a twisted root. She pulled his arm around her shoulder and pressed close, despite the heat in the heavy air. She never seemed to mind the ever-present knives strapped to his side.

"The watch just changed over," she said. "Bai is checking her gear. Morado said to tell you we're moving out in one hour."

Hei didn't respond. Another midnight ambush of another mercenary camp. At least it wasn't a town this time; Carmine would remain behind, and Bai and Hei would do most of the killing. It would be clean.

Amber turned her attention to a flowering plant near her foot. Most of the pale yellow buds were closed, but a few were beginning to open. She leaned forward and plucked one of the open blossoms, twirling it between her fingers.

"Evening primrose," she said. "It only blooms at night. It reminds me of you." She drew back her long hair and tucked the flower behind her ear, then let her hair cascade back down.

"What do you think?" she asked, posing with her hand on her cheek as if for a vacation photo.

Hei looked at her for a long moment. He could almost forget that they were in the middle of a war. "You look nice," he said finally.

"Really? That's sweet of you to say." Amber smiled at him, then settled back and nestled her head in the crook of his neck. The petals in her hair tickled his chin.

Hei closed his eyes and held her close, hoping that this moment of peace would keep the nightmares at bay for another night.

He woke from the dream slowly, eyes opening to reveal the dim interior of the safe house. A small patch of bright sunlight was peeking through a chink in the curtains; it must be midmorning at least. Hei didn't remember going to sleep. He knew he should get up and check on Jiao-tu, but at the moment he was too comfortable to move. The dream still lingered on the edges of his consciousness; he thought he could still feel Amber resting in his arms.

Then something tickled his chin again, and he shifted his head to see a spill of soft chestnut hair across his chest.

_Misaki_.

They'd fallen asleep sitting up on the sofa, leaning against each other. She was curled tightly against him, head on his shoulder. Hei watched her sleep, her breathing measured and slow. Peaceful. He'd told her his darkest secret, the ugly truth that he was a monster of his own creation, that had nothing to do with his becoming a contractor. And she hadn't run.

A lock of hair had fallen across her eyes. He reached over to brush it aside.

~~~~o~~~~

Misaki was almost afraid to open her eyes. She'd been dreaming of that night in the basement of the bar, when Hei had kissed her with such unexpected passion. Only in the dream, they'd done a lot more than just kiss. She thought she could still feel his hand cupping her face while he brushed the hair out of her eyes. She didn't want that feeling to fade.

It didn't. Gradually, she realized that the strong, steady heartbeat sounding in her ear wasn't her own, and the hand on her cheek wasn't the lingering memory of the dream.

She opened her eyes. Hei was gazing down at her with a soft expression that she'd never seen from him before.

He stroked her cheekbone with his thumb again. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you."

"It's fine," she replied, and wondered with an involuntary flush how long he had been watching her sleep, warm hand on her cheek. She hesitantly brought her hand up to his chest, feeling the sculpted muscles beneath the knitted fabric of his shirt, afraid that if she made one wrong move, he would retreat into his contractor persona and this beautiful waking dream would shatter. "I didn't mean to fall asleep."

"It's fine," Hei said, and the sincerity in his deep blue eyes told her that it truly was. She smiled. With his fingertips, he tilted her chin up until she could feel his warm breath on her mouth. They remained like that for a long moment, neither one quite ready to close the distance. Then Hei leaned in slightly.

His kiss was a question; just the lightest brush of his lips against hers, asking her permission, giving her every chance to push away, to run from him. She answered by crushing her mouth against his.

It was as if the past few weeks hadn't happened. They were alone in the basement, alone in her dream, and all her questions regarding his feelings for her disappeared. Hei took her face in both of his hands, slowing her torrent of passion into a long, sweet kiss. Her arms wrapped around his neck, fingers clutching at his hair as she drowned in him.

They broke apart only long enough to gasp for breath before his mouth was on hers again, his tongue running along the inside of her lip. His hands slipped around her to pull her tighter against him. She didn't care that he was a contractor, didn't care that she had every reason to arrest him, or that she could lose her job over this. She felt the heat of his body and the hunger of his kiss and she wanted him.

She leaned away from him a bit, forcing him to follow if he wanted to keep their mouths locked. He caught on to her ploy quickly, and shifted his weight to lay her back against the seat cushions; Misaki could hardly contain a shudder of delight at the feeling of his body pressing down on hers. She wanted to wrap her legs around him, but they were pinned between the sofa back and his hip as he knelt above her.

She relinquished her hold on his neck and dropped her hands to his hips, rucking up his shirt so that she could trail her fingers across his rippling abs. She remembered the sight of him in his apartment, lying fevered and unconscious from KV-464's attack, skin glistening with sweat. Her fingertips traced the ridges of old scars that she hadn't noticed that night, ghosts of the death that followed in his wake. She'd yearned to touch him then, despite the seriousness of the situation, and could hardly believe that he was here, now, under her exploring hands.

As if taking his cue from her, Hei slid a hand down to her waist and slipped it under the hem of her shirt. She gasped at the feel of his calloused fingers following the outline of her ribs as his hand moved up to the band of her bra. She rolled slightly onto her side, pressing against his chest to allow him to reach the clasp, which he undid deftly. When he pushed away the lacy material to cup her breast, her own hands lost all sense of purpose.

His kisses were beginning to drift away from her mouth, and at first she turned her head to follow him, but the scratch of his unshaven chin on her heated skin entranced her, and she lay gasping for breath as he moved with lips, tongue, and teeth along her jaw line to her ear. He nipped at her earlobe, sending a jolt of pleasure straight to the center of her being, and a small moan escaped her.

Suddenly Hei froze, every muscle tense and stiff. At first Misaki thought it was her moan of pleasure that had startled him and didn't understand his reaction. But as he hovered above her protectively, she realized that his attention wasn't on her at all. Then she heard it too: the soft sound of a door sliding shut, followed by muffled footsteps and another door opening and closing.

Xu, going into the bathroom. She'd completely forgotten that the girl was even there. Misaki relaxed back into the cushions. Hei, on the other hand, didn't relax at all, but pushed himself off of her and off the sofa.

"I should check the perimeter," he said in a low, businesslike voice. And without waiting for an answer or even looking at Misaki, he strode around the sofa to the tiny entry hall. She heard something that might have been him putting on his shoes, then the quiet snick of the deadbolt as he unlocked the door and left the apartment.

It was like she'd nearly been caught making out with her high school boyfriend by a nosy little sister. She felt a stab of irritation towards Xu, but it was gone as soon as it had come. That wasn't fair to Xu.

She curled onto her side and clutched a throw pillow to her chest, sighing in frustration. She should be thanking the young woman - that had been escalating way too quickly, and while she still felt a burning desire to be back in Hei's arms, this was hardly the time or the place.

That Hei felt an equal desire for her, she now had no doubt. Not after the carnal way he'd kissed her. She shivered at the memory. She hoped that the only reason he had left really _was_ for security, and not because he was running from her.

She understood him much better now than she had before, now that she knew more of his past; it seemed as if he was two halves, contractor and human, and these halves were at war with each other. Misaki knew that it was his rational, calculating contractor nature that kept him alive day to day, but she fervently hoped that he would let his humanity win this particular fight.


	20. Chapter 20

Hei stood in the shadow of the ground floor stairwell, leaning against the concrete wall as he tried to steady his breathing. Thank goodness Jiao-tu had woken when she did. He shouldn't have kissed Misaki at all, let alone… What the hell was wrong with him?

He could acknowledge a physical attraction to women; that wasn't something he'd lost upon becoming a contractor. But he never acted on it, unless it was for a job. He'd never even been tempted. Not until Misaki.

He'd been dreaming of Amber, feeling a peacefulness that he hadn't experienced for years; not since South America, and those little moments they had been able to steal together. Was that what had led him to kiss Misaki? Or was it her falling asleep in his arms that had evoked that subconscious memory in the first place?

These past few days, Hei had been telling himself that he was in control, that Misaki was just a tool he could use in his mission to get to the bottom of Jiao-tu's situation.

But it was a lie. As he'd just discovered, he wasn't in control at all.

First Amber showing up in Tokyo after all this time had dredged up the feelings he used to have for her and reignited the hatred he now harbored. Then Yin had started changing, and every time he looked at her he thought of Bai, and second chances, marveling at the idea that once again there was someone who looked to him for protection, who he felt the need to protect. And now Jiao-tu was here, bringing with her all the memories of his long-buried past; memories of Xing. A sea of emotions that he'd thought he'd left behind for good was battering against the walls that he'd constructed so long ago, to shield himself from the person he'd needed to become.

And somehow, at some point amidst the storm, Misaki had slipped through a crack in his defenses and had firmly entrenched herself in his thoughts. He wanted to see her smile. He wanted to know she was happy, to know that _he_ made her happy. She was in control, not him; anything she initiated, he would gladly finish, without hesitation. He wanted her warm in his arms again.

But that was the worst place for her to be; there was no way the Syndicate would countenance any kind of relationship between their valuable operative and a section chief of the PSB. She wasn't some delicate flower that needed his protection, but neither of them would have a chance against the Syndicate.

And in any case, sooner or later she would realize that she wasn't as accepting of his occupation as she thought she was. The pity would wear off, and she would remember that whatever past had led him to his present, Hei was still the Black Reaper; nothing would change that. He needed to cut this, whatever it was, off before they reached a tipping point; it had gone too far as it was.

And there was Jiao-tu to worry about, as well. She was understandably angry with him; he was going to have to find a way to explain his involvement in this mess to her, and keep the MSS away for good.

Hei tensed as the apartment door to his right opened. A middle-aged housewife stepped out, empty canvas shopping bags draped over her arm. She was surprised at first to see a stranger standing there, but then she gave him a knowing look. "Trouble with your missus?" she asked.

"Eh, something like that." Hei gave her a strained smile, and tried not to flinch when she reached up to pat his shoulder.

"Just give it a little time, dear. And in the meantime," she lowered her voice conspiratorially, giving him a little wink, "flowers never hurt."

The woman headed off down the street. Hei wasn't going to be buying flowers any time soon; but since he was out here, he might as well do as he'd said he was going to do, and check for signs that they were being watched. And while he did, he could decide what he was going to do about Jiao-tu and Misaki.

~~~~o~~~~

Jiao-tu stared blearily at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Her cheeks were smudged with dirt and her mascara had run until her eyes looked like a raccoon's. She washed her face in the sink, flinching at the shock of the cold water on her skin. It didn't actually do much to improve her appearance, she thought. Or her mood.

She'd woken confused and groggy, after a dream in which giant bunches of dancing bok choy were chasing her. At first she'd been relieved to realize that it had been just a dream. Then she'd taken in her surroundings, and realized that _only_ the bok choy had been a dream. _Stupid nosy rabbit._

Jiao-tu heard a sound like the apartment door opening and closing. Who had left? Why? She'd avoided looking into the main room when she crossed the little hall to the bathroom, but she was pretty sure that Tian and Kirihara had been kissing. Yesterday, she would have been elated at the discovery that she'd been right about them. Today…

Maybe it _had_ all been dream. Maybe she had taken the sleeping pills right away, instead of waiting and debating whether or not to go back out and talk to Tian, because she felt guilty about getting upset. She'd just dreamed about listening in on his conversation with Kirihara through the paper-thin wall of the bedroom. She'd dreamed everything that she'd heard him say about…about…Xing. And himself.

She knew it hadn't been a dream though.

Jiao-tu felt a twinge in her hip from where the wooden pallet had hit her last night. She noticed the bottle of ibuprofen on the counter, and poured out three pills. After swallowing them with water from the tap, she lowered herself down to the floor. If she sat with her back against the bathtub, there was just enough room for her to stretch her leg out and try to work out some of the stiffness.

She remembered the time when she and Xing had been about six and five years old, and they had found a dead baby bird near the elm tree behind Grandfather's school. Jiao-tu thought the bird was gross and didn't want to even look at it; but Xing was so upset by the thought of the little bird falling from its nest, dying all alone without its mother and siblings, that she couldn't stop sobbing. It wasn't until Tian helped them bury the bird, sending Xing and Jiao-tu to the rosebushes to gather petals to sprinkle on the tiny grave, that Xing's tears finally dried.

How could Xing have been the one to kill her own parents? But even as she asked herself the question, Jiao-tu realized miserably that it was plausible, especially if it was true that Xing was a contractor. She knew that a contractor had killed Aunt and Uncle. She knew that when people became contractors, they lost all their feelings and didn't care about things like family anymore. And she knew that even if Xing had turned into a monster and killed their parents, Tian would have done whatever he could to keep his sister safe, including leaving behind the rest of their family.

Tian had lied to her about _everything_. He wasn't at all the same person she'd grown up with. He didn't smile, he didn't laugh; he hadn't seen her in _ten years_ , and he acted like he didn't want to talk to her at all. And she'd heard him admit to Kirihara that he had killed a person to protect Xing, and that he'd killed other people. He talked about it like he didn't even care.

Why hadn't Kirihara tried to arrest him? Was she afraid that he would try to kill her and Jiao-tu? Then why would she be kissing him?

A knock on the door startled her from her thoughts. "Xu? Is everything alright?"

Jiao-tu almost sighed in relief. Tian had been the one to leave, then. Even so, she didn't particularly want to talk to Kirihara either. "Yes, I'm fine," she called through the door.

"Alright," the police chief said kindly. "Let me know if you need anything."

Jiao-tu listened to the other woman's footsteps retreating. She thought back to the contractor fight in the park. Kirihara had told her that Professor Iwakara had been selling his research and some contractors had tried to steal it. She'd heard Tian say that he had been ordered (ordered? By who?) to get from the professor the key that Arakawa had hidden on Jiao-tu's phone, that allowed the research to be deciphered; that was why he'd been in the physics building when it caught fire.

Was Tian the one who Iwakara had met in the park? …The one who had killed those two contractors?

Jiao-tu could hardly believe it, and yet…it made sense. If she forgot who her cousin used to be, and thought about who he was now, it made sense. He wasn't trying to protect her, he was just trying to get the key. And Kirihara was helping him.

They could have the stupid key, Jiao-tu didn't care about it. Kirihara was wrong; she couldn't trust him. Especially if it was true that now _he_ was a contractor. She couldn't trust either of them.

She fought back tears. She was done crying, done being a stupid, helpless rabbit.

When she exited the bathroom, Kirihara was standing next to the living room window, holding the curtain back in inch so she could look out without anyone outside seeing her. She was wearing her gun.

"Is something wrong?" Jiao-tu asked nervously.

The police chief gave her a reassuring smile. "No, everything's fine. I'm just waiting for your cousin to get back; he went to go have a look around outside."

_So he can kill anyone he finds?_ Jiao-tu thought bitterly.

Unaware of Jiao-tu's thoughts, Kirihara continued, "How are you feeling?"

"Um, a little tired and sore still," Jiao-tu said. "I'm going to go lie down for a while longer."

"That sounds like a good idea. I was thinking of throwing something together for lunch, but I'll wait and let Li do it; he's a much better cook than I am." She grimaced. "You should have time to take a short nap. I'll wake you when the food is ready."

Jiao-tu felt her stomach start to rumble at the mention of food; but the thought of having to face Tian, who used to be her cousin but who was a stranger now, killed her appetite. She forced a smile. "Okay. Thanks."

As she shut the door to the bedroom, a little light blinking on her phone caught her eye. She must have missed a message; she'd forgotten that she'd turned the alert volume down earlier. Jiao-tu sat down on the futon and picked up the phone. Her heart clenched when she saw that she had missed a text from Mei-li. With everything she had just learned about Tian and Xing, she had almost forgotten about her roommate entirely.

Should she read the message? Mei-li was working with the people who had attacked Jiao-tu; she couldn't let her know where she was. Still…it wouldn't hurt to see what Mei-li had to say. Maybe she didn't know that Jiao-tu knew who she was now. Maybe it would turn out that Mei-li was just as confused as Jiao-tu, and she was just trying to understand what was happening.

With no small amount of trepidation, Jiao-tu tapped the screen to open the message. It wasn't just a text; there was a photo as well. Jiao-tu clicked to enlarge it. She had to clamp her hand over her own mouth to keep from screaming.


	21. Chapter 21

After checking on Xu, Misaki returned to her post at the window. The sun shone brightly outside, and the street was busy with the neighborhood's residents enjoying the fine day. She didn't spot any signs that the apartment was being watched; evidently the MSS had no way of tracking them. That was good news. She thought she caught a glimpse of Hei once, across the street; but he disappeared behind the traffic.

Misaki was starting to feel restless; she didn't deal well with inaction. They needed to decide what to do about the MSS to ensure Xu's safety. And if she had a plan to focus on, she could stop thinking about Hei and wondering what was going through his mind

For her part, she didn't know what she had been thinking, kissing him like that. She _hadn't_ been thinking. There was just something…magnetic about him that drew her to him without a care for the consequences. She'd never experienced anything like it. She'd had a few short-lived relationships in the past that all eventually fizzled out because, while she'd _liked_ the guys, that was never really enough. One call from the office would have her ditching her date whether she strictly needed to or not.

Now here she was, risking her career over Hei. She'd killed a man last night. She'd done it to protect Xu, not because of anything to do with Hei…but she wouldn't have been following Xu at all if not for her obsession with him. As much as she was attracted to him, she needed to start thinking rationally again. She just didn't want to.

Misaki spun at the sound of the door opening and drew her gun. She relaxed - a little - when she saw that it was just Hei, and re-holstered the weapon. "Everything alright outside?" she asked.

Hei nodded brusquely, expression unreadable. "A nosy neighbor, but that's it. Jiao-tu?"

"She said she was still feeling tired; she's lying down again. She looked pretty exhausted."

Hei stared at the bedroom door for a long moment, as if debating whether or not to go in and talk to Xu. Evidently he decided against it, because he walked into the kitchen and placed a pot under the tap.

Misaki followed, leaning on the half-wall between the kitchen and the main room. She hadn't been sure what Hei's mood was going to be when he returned. She watched his body language as he placed the pot of water on the stove and turned on the burner. He wasn't quite the cold, distant contractor that he used to be around her, but neither was he the open and honest man that he had been last night. He was acting as if none of it had happened; as if they hadn't just had a passionate make-out session not an hour ago.

That it _was_ an act, she was sure. His movements were a little too tense, his mouth a little too tight. And he was definitely avoiding making eye contact with her. She sighed inwardly; she was terrible at the 'relationship talk', and somehow she was sure that bringing up the subject of their kiss and his feelings for her would only backfire. If he wanted to pretend that there was nothing between them, frustrating as that was, then she'd play along. For now.

Misaki decided to stick with a safer subject. "Now that we have a pretty good handle on the situation," she said, "I was thinking it might be time to call in my team. Xu is clearly innocent; we can keep her safe, and you won't have to worry about compromising yourself or your organization."

Hei pulled a package of ramen noodles from the cupboard. "How will you keep her safe?"

"Section Four has safe houses too," she said, a little insulted at his insinuation. "Well, one. And extensive experience dealing with contractors and foreign agencies. That's sort of the whole point of our department."

"That's not what I mean." Hei kept his back to her, eyes focused on the pot of water as if that would somehow make it boil faster. Misaki wanted him to turn around so that they could talk face to face, but this view wasn't bad either.

"The MSS is after the key, not Jiao-tu specifically," he continued, seemingly oblivious to her gaze. "You put her up somewhere safe, and then what? Arrest any contractor who comes after her?"

"Yes," Misaki said slowly, not seeing his point. "If they confess to being MSS, we can use diplomatic routes with the Chinese Embassy ensure Xu's safety; she is their own citizen, after all."

Hei shook his head. "You won't be able to prove who they work for, and if you do, the MSS will disavow them. If they really want this key, they'll simply wait until Jiao-tu is out of your custody and vulnerable again."

"If we destroy the file, delete it from her phone -"

"They'll believe you're lying about it, that you have another copy or a backup somewhere. Then you and your team will be targets too."

Ah." She hadn't considered the long-term problems of her plan. "Okay. Do you have a solution?"

"Give it to them."

It took her a minute to understand what he meant. "Give it to them? Just…hand over the key to the MSS?"

Hei looked her way, finally, his eyebrows raised slightly as if surprised by her confusion. "Yes. If they have what they want, they have no reason to come after Jiao-tu. She'll be safe, for good. And your involvement won't get any deeper."

Misaki crossed her arms, thinking. Just handing off the file hadn't occurred to her at all. "That does sound like the best option for Xu. But is that a good idea? Giving this information to one single country? If Xu's guess was right, that Iwakara's research could lead to the development of an anti-contractor weapon…that's a lot of power to place in a single pair of hands, so to speak."

"I don't care about any of that."

She smiled a little at his words. That was a perfectly normal response for any contractor, but there was nothing contractor-like about anything that Hei had done since meeting his cousin. "Well, I guess ultimately it doesn't matter. The key is useless for the MSS, since the flash drive with the research files that the key deciphers is with _your_ organization." She wished she knew what organization that was. If giving China such a powerful tool might not be a good idea, what would it mean for Hei's employers to possess it? Who were they?

"You have no objections then?" Hei asked.

Misaki blinked. Her opinion held weight in his decision? "No," she said. "I think you're right, it's what's best for Xu, and I don't see anyone getting hurt this way. But how will you get the key to them?"

"I'll go through Jiao-tu's roommate and set up a meeting with her handler or whoever he wants to send. A hand-off should be no problem; I've done plenty of that sort of thing."

It was so ridiculously simple, Misaki could hardly believe that it would work. Then a realization hit her. "Wait, what about your organization?"

"What about them?"

"They want the key too. Whether you go to the hand-off as Li or the Black Reaper, the MSS will know that you, either of you, were in possession of it. Is there a chance that your employers could find out that you had it, and that you not only kept it from them, but turned it over to a rival group?"

Hei frowned, considering. "If I go as Li, I won't stand out in any way. I'll just be some guy Jiao-tu knows, who's trying to help her out."

"Is your alias on file with the embassy?"

"Yes," he said with a sigh. "It makes my cover more secure. Well, I can stipulate a situation that lets me hide my face, or set up a dead drop."

"That's still pretty risky," Misaki said, thinking. "A casual acquaintance of Xu's wouldn't know to do anything like that. And if something goes wrong and you're forced to defend yourself, you'll give yourself away. It would be better if I do it. It's doubtful they know who I am. Section Four hasn't had any dealings with the MSS since I've been with the department, and it was my subordinate who contacted the embassy earlier this week. And the man from last night, who ran off, couldn't have gotten a good look at me."

The alarm was clear on Hei's face. "You can't -"

"Of course I can!" Misaki snapped. "You need help on this. You can't ask your team, but you have me." Her own words startled her, and she paused for breath before continuing. "I became a police officer because I wanted to protect people who can't protect themselves. Xu definitely falls into that category. If I have to work a little outside the law to do that, I will. Besides," she added, remembering his earlier words, "I've done this sort of thing before."

Hei gave her a long, appraising look, almost as if he was seeing her clearly for the first time. When he didn't say anything, Misaki continued, "And you'll be watching from nearby. If it goes bad, you swoop in as if you're trying to steal the key for yourself, incidentally allowing me to escape. Either the MSS will get the key like we intend, or they'll know you have it instead of Xu. And if that's the case, you can give it to your organization, and have Xu's memory erased like you were already planning."

He regarded her for another long moment; Misaki wished she knew what he was thinking.

"Alright," he said. He turned his attention back to the stove. "The noodles are done."

"I'll wake Xu," Misaki said, relieved and nervous at the same time. If things did go wrong, it could cost her more than her career. But she trusted her own capabilities, and she trusted Hei to have her back. And it gave her an excuse to stay with him just a little longer.

She knocked on the bedroom door. "Xu? Are you awake? Lunch is ready, you need to come out and eat."

There was no answer from the bedroom. Misaki frowned. Had Xu taken another sleeping pill? She slid the door open. Aside from a chest of drawers and the futon folded neatly in the corner, the room was completely empty. "Shit."


	22. Chapter 22

"I don't understand," Misaki was saying. "How did they take her? Some sort of transport ability?"

Hei pushed past her into the room. There was nothing to indicate forced entry or contractor activity, no sign that anyone else had been here at all. Then he saw that the window was open - it had definitely been closed when he'd made his last sweep, right before coming back upstairs. He stalked over to the window and looked down, gripping the frame. The courtyard below was empty. They were only on the second floor; it wouldn't be too difficult to climb up, or down. Although anyone would have trouble climbing down carrying a struggling person.

Unbidden, an image of Jiao-tu lying on the lawn of the park with his knife buried in her chest flashed through his mind. Where had they taken her? Why hadn't he heard anything? How could he have been so careless? _You said you'd always protect me, Brother,_ Bai's voice whispered. _Where were you?_

"Hei!"

Hei turned from the window with a start. Misaki's hand was on his bandaged arm; his burns throbbed with pain, but he was only dimly aware of it.

"We'll find her," Misaki said confidently. "If they took her out the window, they can't have gone far. We can split up, take different directions."

Hei exhaled slowly, fighting his rising panic. Misaki's touch was like an anchor, steadying him. _Focus on the job at hand. Emotions are unnecessary distractions._

"Okay," he said. "Right. We - Yin!" Her specter was floating in a half-empty water glass on the floor by the futon.

There was a phone in the kitchen. Hei broke away from Misaki, who was squinting at the glass as if that would help her see the specter, and ran to the kitchen. The phone was attached to the wall shared with the bedroom, its cord hanging free. He plugged it into the jack, and as soon as he heard a dial tone he punched in the number for the tobacco shop. Yin picked up on the first ring.

"Do you have her?" Hei asked. Yin's specter here in the safe house could only mean that she'd been keeping tabs on him again. She might have seen what happened to Jiao-tu. Misaki came out of the bedroom to listen.

"Yes," the doll answered. "Walking into Suekazuinari shrine."

Hei paused, surprised. "Walking? On her own?"

"Yes."

That would explain why they hadn't heard anyone take her, but… "Why would she leave?"

He only realized that he'd spoken aloud when Yin answered, "She read a message on her phone. Then she left."

"A message…damn it, we told her not to contact anyone!"

"Wait," Misaki interrupted, "no one took her? She left on her own?"

"That's what it sounds like," Hei said. "A message sent her to Suekazuinari shrine."

"Suekazuinari shrine…" Misaki pulled out her phone and started typing. "That's close by. Why would she take off without telling us though?"

Hei shook his head; he had no idea. Jiao-tu was angry with him for lying, yes, but she wasn't the type to hold a grudge. He'd expected her to want to talk when she woke up, not run; certainly not run straight to people whom she knew didn't care whether she was alive or dead. Had her roommate lured her out?

"She doesn't trust you."

Hei looked at the phone in surprise. "Yin? What do you mean?"

"She was listening to you talk to Misaki last night and cried before she fell asleep. She waited until you came back inside to leave."

Hei felt the blood drain from his face. He'd completely forgotten about her propensity for eavesdropping; no conversation was private with Jiao-tu in the vicinity. How much had she heard? He tried to remember everything that he'd told Misaki, but the exact words didn't matter; none of it was anything that he'd wanted Jiao-tu to know. His fault. Careless.

"Hei?" Misaki asked, coming up and taking his arm again. "What is it?"

"She heard us talking last night."

Misaki's eyes widened. "Oh. Damn."

_Focus on the job at hand._ "Yin, were you able to see the message she got at all?"

"No."

"Did she respond to it?" Misaki asked.

He repeated the question to Yin, who answered, "Yes. Then she heard you come back, and she left."

Hei rubbed at his face with his free hand, trying to focus. "Is she still at the shrine?"

"Yes. She's there. Wait - she's stopping at a bridge over a pond. She's hiding her phone underneath."

Hei frowned. Had the message been to set up a dead drop?

"Now she's leaving."

"Yin, put your radio on. Channel three. Keep tracking her; I'll be there as soon as I can." He hung up the phone and turned to Misaki. With that look of determination on her face, he'd have to knock her out before she'd agree to stay behind. After Amber, he'd sworn never to trust anyone again; but Misaki wasn't Amber, and there wasn't time to strategize in any case.

And he could use her help.

"Will you go to the shrine?" he asked. When she nodded, he continued, "Find a place to observe the bridge over the pond; Jiao-tu hid her phone there. See if anyone picks it up, but don't interfere. I'll follow Jiao-tu."

Hei gave her hand a brief squeeze as he removed it from his arm, then moved to the main room. Standing on the coffee table, he could easily reach the wooden panels of the ceiling. He counted the fifth panel from the wall with the window, and pushed it up to reveal a black duffel bag stowed in the crawl space. He pulled the bag down and tossed it to the sofa, where it landed with a muffled metallic clunk.

"Do you need the map to the shrine?" Misaki asked. She had put her blazer back on, hiding her weapon, and was looking at the bag with apprehension.

"No, I know this area." He'd never used this safe house before, but when he'd gotten the list of addresses upon first arriving in Tokyo, he'd made sure to scout them all out.

"Okay." Misaki pocketed her phone and started for the door, but Hei called her back.

"Take this," he said. He unzipped a side pocket of the duffel and pulled out a radio, which was little more than an ear piece with a tiny microphone attached. He adjusted the settings and handed it to her. "In case we need to coordinate. Channel three is our back-up emergency channel; no one should be listening besides Yin and myself, but try not to say anything unless it's absolutely necessary."

Misaki gingerly took the radio from his hand, a look of disbelief on her face.

"I'd better get that back," he warned.

She gave him a grim smile. "Don't worry." Securing the radio in her ear, she hurried from the apartment. Hei watched her go. So much for his decision to keep his distance from her.

He pulled his tactical gear from the duffel. He didn't care what Jiao-tu had heard, or what she thought about him. He wasn't going to leave her to the wolves.

~~~~o~~~~

Jiao-tu waited impatiently at the intersection; she had maybe five minutes left to get to Nogizaka Station. Her detour to the shrine had been a split-second decision. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but now she was beginning to regret it. If they killed Mei-li because she was late…she didn't care what Tian and Kirihara said about Mei-li, there was no way her best friend would betray her like that. The photo they'd sent was only confirmation of Mei-li's unwilling involvement. The image of her roommate's face, beaten and bloody, with a gun held to her head, was engraved on Jiao-tu's mind.

The signal changed, and only the pain in her hip kept Jiao-tu from running across the busy street; the climb down from the bedroom window hadn't helped any. She took a short cut through an office park, hoping that she was remembering the route correctly. Aside from the nightlife district, she didn't know this neighborhood at all; she'd needed the GPS on her phone to tell her where the nearest train station was, and she'd left her phone at the shrine. Emerging onto another street, she almost cried in relief; the station entrance was just up ahead.

A crowd of people emerging from the station slowed her progress. As she pushed her way through them, a hand caught her elbow and began pulling her down the street.

"Hey, let go!" Jiao-tu swung her fist at the shoulder of the man who held her and tried to pull away.

"Now, now, none of that, _Anjinha_ ," the man said in heavily accented Chinese. He wasn't much taller than Jiao-tu, with dark hair and olive skin. A well-tailored business suit, together with a cheerful smile despite the punch to his shoulder, gave him a handsome air. "You were told to come here; I was told to pick you up. As lovely as your picture, you are. This way."

Jiao-tu followed without resisting, though he didn't let go of her until they reached a van parked just down the street from the station.

"In," the man said, pushing her into the back of the van. He climbed in after her. As soon as he shut the door, the van pulled away from the curb.

"Where are we going?" Jiao-tu asked nervously. Her heart was beating so hard she thought her chest would burst.

The man sat back comfortably on the seat next to her, his arm across the back. Jiao-tu pressed herself as close to the window as she could, away from his arm. He noticed, and smiled. "Someplace we can talk in private. My employers thought another public assault would be _não faz mal_ , eh, _no problem_. I, I have a better idea. This is why they hire me."

Jiao-tu didn't like the way he was looking at her, like a cat who'd caught a rabbit. "Who are you? Where's Long Mei-li?"

"Me? Lately, I am Chuzi. Not very imaginative, my current employers." He shrugged. "As for your friend, do not be worrying about her."

"Of course I'll worry about her!" Jiao-tu said. "That's why I came!"

"Ah, friendship - such powerful human emotion," Chuzi said with a sigh. "It only makes you a fool."

There was something about the way he was speaking - aside from his horrible accent and grammar - that seemed off to Jiao-tu. Like he wasn't including himself in the category of 'human'.

"Are you…a contractor?"

Chuzi's smile widened. "Good guess, _Anjinha_." He leaned closer to her and patted her cheek. "With one touch, I can boil all the blood in your lovely veins, until you turn red, then purple, and then burst. So, behave."

"That's why they call you 'Cook'?" she asked, trying to shrink away. She hadn't understood the name when he'd first said it, his pronunciation was so bad.

"Like I said - not very imaginative."

He hadn't taken his eyes off of her once since they'd gotten into the van, but now his watchful gaze turned shrewd. "You look familiar. Why?"

"I don't know," Jiao-tu said. She wanted to get as far away from this man as possible; but she had to make sure Mei-li was alright first. _You're a dragon_ , she told herself hopelessly.

She turned to look out the window - anything to distract herself from the smiling monster beside her - and realized with a start that she recognized the street they were on. The Chinese Embassy was here; she hadn't known it was so close to Nogizaka station. The van passed through the embassy's gate security, then pulled into the parking garage.

The driver - a Chinese man, Jiao-tu noticed for the first time - came around to the side of the van and opened the door.

"Come," Chuzi said, exiting the van.

The driver gestured with a handgun for Jiao-tu to follow the contractor, then brought up the rear of the little procession. Once inside the building, they took her by private hallways and a secure-entry stairwell, deeper and deeper into the embassy. Finally, they led her to a small windowless room, containing nothing but a metal table and two chairs. _All that's missing is the giant spotlight_ , Jiao-tu thought, too petrified to actually feel scared.

"Sit," Chuzi told her, pulling out one of the chairs. Jiao-tu sat, folding her hands meekly in her lap. Chuzi himself remained standing, leaning against the wall to her side and quietly whistling an upbeat tune. The driver also remained in the room, taking up a guard position next to the door.

A minute later, a wiry, middle-aged man with a shock of white hair entered. He took the seat across from Jiao-tu with a slight bow of his head, and gave her what he probably thought was a fatherly look. "Miss Xu, it is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Zhang. I am an officer of the Ministry of State Security."

He seemed to be expecting a response, but Jiao-tu just stared at him, her throat too dry to speak.

When she didn't answer, Zhang continued. "First of all, let me apologize for the manner in which you were brought here, and for the misunderstanding last night. It was never our intention to cause you harm - you are, after all, a fellow citizen of our dear country. So let me emphasize this: you are not our prisoner, but our guest. Would you care for anything to drink?"

His tone was friendly, but there was no warmth in his eyes. Jiao-tu found him almost as unsettling as Chuzi. "Um, may I have some water?" she managed at last. "And can I see Long Mei-li?"

Zhang motioned to the driver, who left the room without a word. "I assure you, your roommate is fine. All we need is to retrieve a certain file that was placed on your phone. Then both you and she are free to go."

Jiao-tu was strongly reminded of the government men who'd shown up at Grandfather's door all those years ago; she'd snuck out of the kitchen to hear them telling him that Tian and Xing were dead. Even his black business suit was the same. "I want to see her first!"

The driver returned with a bottle of water, which he handed to Zhang. Zhang passed the bottle across to Jiao-tu. She brought her hands out from under the table to retrieve the bottle, but she was too nervous to drink. Instead, she moved her hands back to her lap, clutching the bottle tightly and trying to make herself as small as possible.

"Miss Xu, let me explain this," Zhang said with a smile and an air of false patience. "When I sent my agents to retrieve your phone from you last night, I instructed them not to harm you. Unfortunately, they did not follow those instructions. The file that was hidden on your phone concerns a matter vital to state security. You have the opportunity to serve the People's Republic, simply by giving us your phone."

_You're a dragon, not a rabbit._ She squeezed the water bottle under the table, the plastic making a loud crinkling sound. "Mei-li first."

Zhang was obviously struggling to keep his expression benign. "I had hoped you would be more cooperative. Chuzi."

The contractor stopped whistling, and took a step forward.

"I don't have the phone!" Jiao-tu said hurriedly, cringing away from Chuzi. The contractor paused.

"Where is it?" Zhang asked, his fatherly demeanor evaporating. "You were told to bring it!"

Jiao-tu's hands were shaking. She took a deep breath. "Let Mei-li go. Then I'll tell you."

"This one understands leverage," Chuzi said jovially. "You see? This is why I tell you not to kill the _anjinha_. Had you done, we would have no phone. Had you killed the other, we still would have no phone. This one wants to bargain, so we bargain."

Jiao-tu blanched. They had been going to kill both her and Mei-li? That was why Chuzi hadn't just tried to take her phone on the street, she realized; they were planning to kill her no matter what. She was suddenly glad of her idea to hide the phone. And it was a good thing that she hadn't left it with Tian and Kirihara; Tian wasn't her cousin anymore, but she still wasn't going to do anything like send MSS contractors straight to him.

A vein in Zhang's forehead pulsed as he clenched his jaw. "Fine. Bring her."

The contractor left the room. Jiao-tu and Zhang sat across from each other, not speaking. For her part, Jiao-tu was desperately trying to come up with a way that would get her and Mei-li out of this alive; it didn't sound like Zhang had any intention of letting them go, once he had her phone.

After what felt like hours, but was probably only several minutes, Chuzi returned. He was propping up a young woman whose face was barely recognizable behind her bright red - now cracked - glasses.

"Mei-li!" Jiao-tu gasped, wanting to run to her friend but afraid to move anywhere near Zhang or the contractor.

Chuzi let go of Mei-li's arm, and she fell to the floor. "'Tu," she managed to say, "I'm sorry, I -"

"That's enough, _Benzinha_ ," the contractor said. He bent down and lifted Mei-li to her feet again; Mei-li flinched from his touch but seemed too weak or afraid to fight him.

"There," Zhang said impatiently. "You see your friend; she's alive. Now, where -"

The room was abruptly plunged into darkness. "Damn it!" Jiao-tu heard Zhang swearing. "What happened?"

The emergency lights flickered into life, casting the room in a dull grayish light. The driver and Zhang both had guns out and were aiming them through the open door. The driver also held a walkie-talkie. He pressed the button and said, "Perimeter, check in, over." He was answered with nothing but silence. He repeated the message; still nothing.

Chuzi pushed Mei-li at Zhang. "Time to move," the contractor said, and darted around the table to pull Jiao-tu out of her seat. She banged her shin on the metal table, dropping her water. "We must get them to the base in Yokohama; have Shanzi deal with our visitor."

"You're not in charge -" Zhang began, but Chuzi interrupted him, still smiling.

"You hire me to be the expert; I am the expert. I say 'go', we go."

Zhang looked furious at being told what to do, but he took Mei-li and roughly pulled her out of the room. At a quick nod from Zhang, the driver spoke into his radio again, issuing rapid instructions that faded into unintelligibility as Chuzi and Jiao-tu followed Zhang and Mei-li.

" _Má sorte_ for Shanzi, I think," Chuzi said conversationally as the party rushed down the darkened hall, "if our visitor is who I think he is. But lucky for us, _anjos caídos_ cannot fly."


	23. Chapter 23

"She's getting into a van," Yin told him. "Nogizaka Station."

Hei cursed inwardly. Yin had had trouble following Jiao-tu, as dry as the streets had been recently. Without knowing exactly where his cousin was headed, Hei hadn't been able to catch up to her. _They're moving her to a secure location,_ he realized. That wasn't good news for Jiao-tu; once off the street, they could torture her, kill her, and no one would ever know.

"Which way is the van headed? Gaien Higashi Dori?"

"No," was Yin's reply. "The other way."

The opposite direction from him. Hei cursed again. But they were in Roppongi, and dealing with the MSS, so…

"They're taking her to the Chinese Embassy. Yin, send your specter there. But be careful, there may be contractors with her."

He shifted the small gear bag on his back and sprinted down the street, taking the most direct route possible. It was about a mile to the embassy; he wouldn't be able to catch the van, not on foot - but maybe he could cut it off. He had thrown an old jacket from the safe house's stash of clothes on over his black clothes and weapons harness; his trench coat and other potentially useful items were stowed in the bag. It was the middle of the afternoon on a Saturday, and the streets were busy with local neighborhood traffic, tourists, and shoppers. He couldn't afford to stand out too obviously. More so than he already was, anyway.

"Has anyone come for the phone?" he asked as he took a short cut through a residential street, startling a woman walking a small dog. The dog yapped at his heels.

"Negative," Misaki said over the radio.

"Stay on it," he told her. Mori Tower loomed ahead. Hei didn't bother waiting for the traffic signal to change. He paused long enough to find a gap in the traffic, then ran across the street, dodging cars and trucks.

He reached the embassy in time to see a white van pull into a small gate on the east side of the building. There was far less traffic here than there had been on the main roads. The barrier came down as the van passed, and two guards armed with assault rifles paced in front of it. There would be more patrolling the grounds, he knew. After the recent terrorist bombings, all embassies' security had tightened.

He halted across the street from the gate, concealing himself in the shadow of an apartment building to catch his breath. How was he going to get inside in broad daylight, past the guards? It was Saturday, and the embassy was closed - he couldn't walk in on pretend business. He would have to breach the perimeter.

Hei adjusted his windbreaker and gear bag and wandered casually down the street, eyeing the security cameras mounted on the walls. He was looking for a weak point in the embassy's security. There - the portion of the embassy's western exterior wall that had been damaged during the bombing would be the most logical place to hit - but he could see that there were twice as many guards on that section.

As he scanned the narrow street running parallel to the wall, an idea flashed in his mind. Twice as many guards…if he could draw even more guards to that area, he may be able get through the eastern gate without too much trouble.

"Grab the phone and get to the embassy as fast as you can. Across from the northern wall," he said into the radio.

He hadn't wanted to interfere with the drop; if the MSS sent someone to pick it up and it wasn't there, they would hurt Jiao-tu. But he steeled himself to the very probable possibility that she _was_ going to get hurt, no matter what. He was sure now that Jiao-tu's life was directly tied to that phone. As long as it was out of the MSS's hands, she would at least live long enough for Hei to reach her.

"Roger," Misaki responded. Hei hoped she was a fast runner.

He took up a post opposite the north side of the embassy, near the wall of an office building that was partially concealed by a row of trees. Out of direct line of sight of the security cameras, he removed his gear bag and swapped the jacket for his bulletproof coat.

While he was changing, Yin spoke. "I have her. Basement room. No windows."

"Careful, Yin," Hei warned. "Don't let them see your specter."

"The water is under a table. They can't see. Three men." Then to his surprise, Yin began relaying the conversation in the room, in Chinese. He didn't think she understood the words, but she was repeating them perfectly. Hei listened intently; so Jiao-tu had thought to hide the phone, on her own? That was smart. _Chuzi_ \- Cook. That was probably a contractor.

A few minutes after Yin had informed him that one of the men was leaving the room, he saw Misaki turn the corner and slow to a brisk walk, surreptitiously scanning the area, obviously wary of the cameras. She'd made good time.

Hei gave a low whistle to attract her attention. She saw him in the shadows and trotted up, breathing hard, her face flushed with exertion.

"Here." Hei handed her a road flare. "There's a car parked across the street from the damaged west wall; walk by, light the flare, and drop it in the gas tank. If they see you, just run; they can't follow, not on Japanese soil. I'll use the distraction to get through the gate."

Misaki looked at the flare in her hand, and the mask in his. Hei saw the indecision in her eyes, and suddenly remembered that she was a cop - how had he forgotten that?

"You don't have to," he told her softly, looking into her eyes. "I can get in on my own."

Then Yin said, "They brought in another woman. Mei-li. She's been hurt."

Hei saw Misaki's grip on the flare tighten. "Get them both out if you can," she said. Then she clenched her jaw, and without another word headed down the street and around the west corner.

Hei waited a few moments after she turned the corner to give her time to get to the car. Then mask in hand, he strode down the street in the opposite direction. Rounding the northeastern corner of the embassy, he headed across the street, straight towards the gate and the two security guards. The guards saw him, and fidgeted with their assault rifles nervously. One moved his hand towards his radio.

An explosion ripped through the air; the guards both turned towards the commotion. As they turned, Hei put on his mask and sprinted to the gate. He vaulted over the barrier and dropped the nearest man with a roundhouse kick to the head. The other guard noticed him then, and brought up his gun to fire; Hei grabbed the barrel and jerked it up, kicking the man hard in the stomach. The guard dropped to his knees, losing his grip on the weapon. Hei brought the butt of the rifle down on the man's head, knocking him out. He'd decided he would do his best not to kill anyone here, for Misaki's sake.

Tossing the rifle to the ground, Hei darted into the guard booth and placed his gloved hand on the closed circuit television. The diversion had worked; he could see the other security guards gathering on the west end of the compound. Summoning his ability, he killed the security cameras. There was an electrical conduit buried in the ground, running parallel to the wall; Hei could sense the electricity running through it. He'd already lost the element of surprise, but confusion would be just as useful. Pressing his hand down on the floor of the booth, he sent enough electricity into the conduit to overload the system and knock out the power for the entire embassy.

As he ran across the deserted drive to the main building, he heard a radio inside the guard booth crackle. " _Perimeter, check in, over."_

~~~~o~~~~

Jiao-tu stumbled along beside Chuzi; his fingers were digging painfully into the flesh around her elbow. She'd tried pulling away from him once, but he'd told her kindly that he would boil the blood in her arm if she tried it again. Three men in embassy guard uniforms had joined them after they'd left the interrogation room. One was leading the party, the other two bringing up the rear, assault weapons at the ready.

"Is it contractors?" Zhang asked, dragging a weeping Mei-li behind him.

"So I am guessing," Chuzi said. He was still smiling, his teeth flashing white in the dark corridor, but his voice was tight, as if he was worried. "Just one, though, I am almost sure."

"One? We're panicking this much over just one contractor?" Jiao-tu couldn't see Zhang's face, but she could hear the scowl in his voice.

"I have heard rumors of one certain contractor who is recently in Tokyo, one who can control electricity - he it was who killed Feng and Wuxing, no doubt. Strangely, I have also heard that this same contractor is _o Anjo Negro_ , who was no contractor the last I see him. Strange, indeed. That one is enough, even if he is still no contractor."

Jiao-tu wondered what he meant by that, but she was too afraid to ask. They entered the stairwell and headed up. Mei-li tripped on a step; Zhang jerked her to her feet with a curse.

"Why am I carting this useless sack of rice along with me?"

Chuzi tut-tutted. "Do not be discarding our leverage; not yet, at the least."

From the stairwell they emerged into a parking garage. Jiao-tu saw the van that had brought her here, as well as two black sedans with darkly tinted windows. Her feet splashed through puddles left by a dripping water pipe.

"Ah, _um problema pequeno_ ," Chuzi said, staring at one of the puddles."We are splitting up, I think." He motioned to one of the rear guards. "You - take that girl and our dear leader and head to the other base, being sure to confuse any tails. I and this one will follow, with this fellow."

"I'm not letting Xu out of my sight until I have that key!" Zhang said.

" _Está bem_ ," Chuzi said impatiently. "You come with us then."

Zhang shoved Mei-li at one of the guards, who half-led half-carried her to a car and pushed her into the back seat. As Chuzi, Zhang, and Jiao-tu reached the other car, she heard a strangled noise behind them. They all turned to see the third guard scrabbling at a thin cable that was wrapped around his neck. The man was suddenly wracked with spasms; he dropped to the ground, unconscious or dead Jiao-tu couldn't tell. His fall revealed the man standing behind him, holding the other end of the cable: a man dressed all in black, with a ghostly white, eyeless face. A mask.

She gasped in shock - it was the man from the park, who she'd seen kill those other men. He was after her too?

Chuzi's grip on Jiao-tu's arm tightened and he pulled her against him as if to use her as a shield. The masked man dropped the cable and tensed, but then unexpectedly spun around. Another embassy guard had emerged from the stairwell behind him. Instead of a gun, this one carried two traditional Chinese fans. As Jiao-tu watched, the guard highlighted in an eerie blue light and made a complicated gesture with the fans, then threw one with blinding speed at the masked man. But the man was already moving. He threw a cable to his right; it wrapped around a pillar and pulled him out of the way of the fan, which sliced into the side of the van, narrowly missing him.

Chuzi didn't hesitate. "In!" he shouted at Zhang, then he wrenched open the car door and shoved Jiao-tu into the back seat. Zhang, wide-eyed, jumped into the passenger seat. The remaining guard ran around to the driver's side and climbed in, pushing a button to start the ignition. Jiao-tu crawled across the seat and tugged at the door handle, but it was locked, and no amount of pulling on the lock would budge it; safety locks.

She turned to go back out the door she'd been pushed through but paused when she saw Chuzi. The contractor stood a few feet away with his hand on the leaky water pipe that was running from the floor of the garage to the ceiling. The masked man was across the garage and still dodging fans. The blue glow of synchrotron radiation surrounded Chuzi, and a pipe above the masked man burst, shrouding him in a thick cloud of burning steam.

"Go!" Chuzi shouted, and jumped into the back of the car with Jiao-tu as it swung out of its parking space. Jiao-tu saw a wicked-looking knife impale itself in the pipe that Chuzi had been touching only moments ago. She turned to look out the back window. The masked man burst from the cloud of steam and ran after them, another knife in his hand. Suddenly he threw himself to the side, barely dodging another fan thrown by the other contractor.

With squealing tires, the sedan sped out of the garage, and she lost sight of them both.


	24. Chapter 24

Misaki paced nervously near a row of dumpsters behind the high school. She could hear the sirens of the fire truck that had been dispatched to put out the car fire, and hoped no one had gotten a description of her leaving the scene. _It was just a car_ , she told herself. _No one got hurt_. Fortunately, she hadn't heard any gun shots; Hei must have been able to sneak onto the grounds without too much trouble.

She heard Yin's voice over the radio directing Hei to the parking garage, and listened with bated breath to the doll's warnings of another contractor's attacks. She wished she could see what was happening; aside from wanting to back up Hei if she could, she'd only ever seen glimpses of him in action. At Park's house fighting KV-464, he'd looked like a dancer, graceful and intense. When he'd knocked out VI-952 in front of her and Saitou, it had been over in an instant; then he'd disappeared just as quickly as he'd appeared. Not for the first time, she wondered if he had deliberately timed it so that he'd saved them, or if it had just been luck.

"Yin, stay on the car!" Hei said, his voice low and cutting. She heard nothing else for another couple of minutes. Misaki was about to ask what was happening, when she heard a scraping sound behind her. She spun, hand darting beneath her blazer to retrieve her weapon. But it was just Hei, dropping down from the alley fence. He wasn't wearing his mask; blood ran down his face from a slice along his hairline. Neither of the girls was with him.

"Are you alright?" Misaki moved forward to look at the cut, but Hei brushed her hand aside.

"It's fine." He wasn't meeting her eyes, but it wasn't hard to detect the anger that was simmering just below the surface of his blank face. "Yin?"

They both waited for several tense seconds; then Yin said, "The car turned onto Gaien-nishi Dori. I can't follow it."

Hei turned and slammed his fist into the nearest dumpster, the metal clanging loudly. He moved to punch it again, but Misaki, her heart in her throat, caught his arm with both of hers. "Hei, calm down!"

"I'm sorry," Yin said.

Hei took a deep breath, then let the air out slowly. "It's not your fault, Yin."

"They took her in a car?" Misaki asked, relieved that he was calming down, although he still seemed to be struggling to contain his anger. She was more than a little terrified at the thought of him losing control of himself, and didn't let go of his arm. There was an obvious dent in the dumpster where he had hit it.

He nodded, jaw tense, and wiped the blood out of his eye with his free hand. "Morado put her in a car and took off while I fought with another contractor. Cars are hard enough to track, but the streets are too dry for Yin right now, and he saw her specter anyway; he'll know to stay away from water."

"Morado?"

"The contractor with Jiao-tu. I knew him in South America," Hei said. There was a dangerous glint in his eye; Misaki did not want to be anywhere near Morado when Hei caught up to him.

"Okay," said Misaki. "This is good."

Hei gave her a sharp look, his eyes narrowing. "Good?"

How was it that _she_ was the one thinking rationally here? "Yin, did anyone see your specter when they still had Xu in the basement? When you were repeating their conversation?"

"No," the doll answered.

"Good," Misaki repeated. "I didn't understand the Chinese, of course, but I know I heard something about Yokohama, after the car fire started."

Hei frowned. "Yokohama…they said something about going to a base in Yokohama, I think; I didn't catch it exactly."

The beginnings of a strategy were forming in Misaki's mind. "There's a large Chinese community in Yokohama. The MSS deals mainly with policing their own citizens living abroad; it would make sense for them to have a base of operations there, someplace secure where they can take Xu until they get the key." She still didn't know why the MSS were after the key when they didn't have the research files it decoded, but that didn't exactly matter now.

"If she's smart, Xu will tell them where she hid the phone; they won't risk hurting her until they have it. With all the confusion at the embassy, hopefully it will take them a while to get organized and go after it. And if they didn't see Yin's specter, they don't know that we know that that's where they're headed, so they won't be in any hurry, and they won't be expecting us."

"They'll need to regroup first," Hei said, the relief evident in his voice. "I still have time to get to her."

"And outside of the embassy, I can be of more help," Misaki added. "Strictly speaking, I don't have jurisdiction in Yokohama, but my badge will still open doors that may be useful."

"You still want to help?" he asked quietly.

"Don't be stupid!" She couldn't keep the edge from her voice. "Foreign intelligence kidnapped two girls in the middle of my city; of course I still want to help!"

Hei smiled at her then. It was slight; it wasn't a happy smile, it wasn't the kind of smile that she'd loved seeing on Li's face; but it was real. Her heart skipped a beat. Then he looked away. Without a word he removed his arm from her grasp and took off his gear bag, then stripped off his coat and gloves. Misaki watched as he pulled a worn red jacket from the bag and put it on, hiding his knives. He folded the black coat quickly and placed in it the bag, then stood again. He settled a navy blue baseball cap on his head, pulling it low over his cut; the bleeding had stopped, but there were still smudges of red on his temple.

"Here," Misaki said. She reached up and wiped the worst of the smudges away, then tugged some of his hair down to hide the cut. Finished, she started to bring her hand down, but he reached up and grasped it gently.

"Thank you," he said seriously, and she knew that he meant it for far more than just helping with the hat.

"My car is still at Xu's apartment, but that's between here and Yokohama; we can pick it up on our way," she said, trying not to lean in and kiss him.

Yin broke the spell. "It's too far," the doll said. "I can't see."

Hei let go of Miskai's hand and turned abruptly, heading down the alley towards the street. "It's out of range for the radios in any case. It's not going to be easy locating them in Yokohama without Yin."

Misaki caught up to him. "Go pick her up. I'll get my car and meet you at…Shinbashi?"

"Alright. Yin, wait for me at the station. Both of you turn your radios off for now."

They walked to Roppongi station in silence, then split up; Hei heading north and east to meet Yin, Misaki heading south to Ookayama and her car. As she crossed to her platform, she watched him waiting for his train, hands in his jacket pockets and looking bored; she only saw his tense impatience because she was looking for it. It was a good thing he'd brought the baseball cap, though. It did more than just hide the cut on his forehead; it hid the deadly determination in his eyes.

~~~~o~~~~

Jiao-tu squished herself against the door of the sedan, trying to keep as far away from the contractor as possible. This seemed to amuse Chuzi to no end, but he didn't try to crowd her space. Instead, he relaxed into his own seat, took a length of kite string from his suit jacket pocket, and began playing a game of cat's cradle, whistling softly. Xing used to love that game, Jiao-tu remembered sadly. The two of them had played it all the time, while they waited for their brothers at Grandfather's school or after their dance class before one of their mothers came to pick them up. Seeing the familiar designs forming around the hands of the contractor made her feel a little ill.

Her own hands were bound in front of her now, tied with a plastic zip tie that Zhang had gotten from the guard who was driving them. So much for not being a prisoner. She wondered where the other guard had taken Mei-li.

Zhang turned to the back seat, scowling. He was obviously used to sitting in the back himself and being chauffeured like most party officials; but, like Jiao-tu, he appeared to be too afraid of Chuzi to argue the point.

"Who the hell was that? How did he know where you were?" the MSS officer asked angrily. "You were told not to contact anyone!"

"I didn't!" Jiao-tu protested. She was remembering her earlier thoughts, that the man in the park might have been Tian. Now that same man had appeared at the embassy. His height and build fit, but he'd been so terrifying. Could that really have been Tian?

"Hm, who indeed," Chuzi said, working the kite string through a series of intricate patterns. "After the key, I am guessing - he does not know she does not have it."

"How did you miss him tracking her? I'm beginning to regret hiring you," Zhang said, turning back to the front and straightening his suit irritably.

"I am no doll, to be detecting threads," Chuzi replied mildly. "I did not even see any ghosts. Except the one in the garage, when he already had found us. Even so, if you were not hiring me, I promise you, you would be dead at the embassy."

Zhang gave a snort. "Shanzi will take care of him."

Chuzi shook his head. " _O Anjo Negro?_ He will be slowed by Shanzi, but Shanzi will be killed by him. Poor Shanzi." He didn't sound at all sad about Shanzi's potential death. "Still, moving cars are not so easy to follow. Yokohama is too far for his water doll to track, and he does not know we are headed there; if Shanzi slows him long enough, he will not find us. _Boa sorte para nós._ "

Jiao-tu was getting confused by their talk of dolls and ghosts, but at Chuzi's assurance that the masked man wouldn't be able to follow them, her heart sank. She had been hoping that the masked man was Tian, she realized. At least Tian didn't seem to want to kill her, unlike Zhang. After all, he'd known that that file was on her phone all night, and hadn't tried to take it from her. He'd even told Kirihara that he didn't care about it. Was Kirihara right? Could she really trust him, despite all the lies?

They drove for a few more minutes in silence, the city rushing past. The dark tint on the windows made it seem as if the whole world was enveloped in shadows. The contractor eventually stopped his game; but instead of putting the string back into his pocket, he considered it thoughtfully.

"Ah!" he said suddenly, making both Jiao-tu and Zhang jump. "Now I know why it is you look familiar!" Jiao-tu tried to avoid his intense gaze, but it was impossible in the confines of the car. "I see Hei at the embassy, and I think, ah, it is true, he is a contractor now. And I see his power, and I think, how strange, that he is having the same ability as his sister. And here is my answer - you, you look like his sister."

Jiao-tu blinked. Hei? She thought back to the conversation between Tian and Kirihara; what had he said? _Xing became Bai, and I became Hei_. It hadn't made any sense at the time, his talking about them becoming white and black, but now…were those names? Strange names, if they were. But no stranger than _Chuzi_ or _Shanzi_. And _Hei_ certainly fit a killer who dressed all in black.

"Sister? You mean…Bai?" she asked tentatively.

" _Com certeza!_ Such a deadly dancer, that one is," Chuzi said. Then he frowned. "But you are not Bai. You are another sister? A…what is it, who is next to a sister? Ah, a cousin, perhaps?"

Jiao-tu tried to think. Should she admit to being Tian's cousin? What would Chuzi do if he knew that she was?

She decided to avoid the question, and asked one of her own instead. "How do you know…Hei and Bai?" Zhang was listening in the front seat, she saw, and she was afraid that Chuzi wouldn't answer. But he didn't seem to mind the audience.

"We were teammates for a time, they and I, during the troubles at Heaven's Gate."

_The South American war? Tian and Xing were in that?_ Jiao-tu was interested in spite of herself - Tian wouldn't tell her anything about his life for the past ten years, maybe she could learn something from Chuzi.

"Were you friends?" she asked.

"Friends? Bai and myself are contractors, _Anjinha_ , and contractors do not have friends. And Hei, he is _o Anjo Negro_ , he has no friends, only enemies. For a time, though we follow the same orders, I thought he would kill me in my sleep."

"Why would he do that?" Jiao-tu asked, aghast. The cousin she'd known would never do something like that. Had Tian really changed so much? …But he must have, if he was indeed the man from the park, the killer in the white mask.

Chuzi gave a laugh. "Because I dare to suggest we leave his sister behind during a mission. She fell asleep; she was too much trouble to carry out. I say, we leave her. He say, he will carry her himself, and kill me if I try to stop him. For weeks after, I see him watching me, and think he will kill me anyway." The contractor was smiling at the memory, but there was no warmth in his eyes. "Eventually, we understand each other; but, I still guard my back. You do not want _o Anjo Negro_ for your enemy."

"What do you mean, Xi- Bai fell asleep?" Jiao-tu asked. "In the middle of a fight?"

Chuzi gave her an odd look. "You know Bai, but you do not know her price?"

"Price?"

"It is why we are called contractors," Chuzi explained. "To use our abilities, we must pay a price. Bai, she must sleep. I, I have my string." He held up his hands, the kite string still woven in a complicated pattern.

Tian had said something about Xing falling asleep as a price, Jiao-tu remembered. Like half of what he'd said though, she hadn't understood it. "What happens if you don't pay?"

The contractor laughed again, teeth flashing. "Nothing good, _Anjinha_. Hei, he watched over his sister every time she make her payments. So strange, to the rest of us. So human, caring for a sister who no longer cares for him back," Chuzi mused, his smile slipping. "I had sisters, once. Sisters, brother, cousins. I hear what is to happen to Heaven's Gate, and I do the rational thing - I run the other way. Never do I think to even warn those people, who used to be _minha família_."

"You're from Brazil?" Jiao-tu asked. "So, all your family was killed when Heaven's Gate disappeared? That's terrible!"

Chuzi gave a casual shrug. " _Família_ means nothing to contractors. Means nothing to me."

_You can always bargain with a contractor,_ she'd heard Tian say. Contractors were rational. Chuzi didn't care about his family, but he did care about himself. She thought she saw a glimmer of hope, so she took a risk. "He is my cousin. Hei. He said he isn't interested in the key on my phone, he only wants to keep me safe. He'll kill you if you hurt me." She wasn't sure if it was true or not; all that mattered was that she convince Chuzi that it was.

But he dismissed her assertions confidently. "If Hei were not now a contractor, if you were Bai and not you, yes, you would be right. But he is a contractor, and so he must be rational. He will come for the key, not for you. And as I say before: he will not find us in Yokohama. But this is a good thing - you think you want _o Anjo Negro_ to find you, but you do not."

He kept saying that phrase, in his native tongue. "What does that mean?" Jiao-tu asked. " _O_ …what is it?"

" _O Anjo Negro da Morte_. What is it in Chinese?" Chuzi pursed his lips. "Black, eh, black ghost, maybe? No, no… _Eu não sei_ \- Zhang, my friend, what is the word? The good ghosts? Not Asian ghosts, European."

Zhang's mouth twisted when Chuzi called him 'friend', but he answered anyway. "Angel, you mean."

"Angel, is it? Yes, you are probably right. Black Angel." Chuzi turned back to Jiao-tu. "I shall not tell you how he came by that name; you would not sleep."

The contractor's smile alone was enough to keep her from sleeping, Jiao-tu thought. But Tian's new name, a twisted perversion of his true name, was even more chilling. The Black Angel. _Hei Tianshi_.


	25. Chapter 25

Yin was waiting for Hei outside the train station. Unfortunately, so was Mao. Hei led them over to an empty bus bench by a tree and sat down.

"I just heard something very interesting," the cat said quietly, settling himself on Yin's lap.

Hei tensed. Had Mao been listening in on the radios earlier, despite his precaution of using their back-up channel?

"Apparently, your star was active a short while ago, along with two others, near the Chinese Embassy. This wouldn't have anything to do with the Chinese woman who was in your apartment the other day, would it?"

Hei didn't answer. He wanted to wait and be sure exactly what Mao did and didn't know. And he wanted to get back on the train and to Shinbashi to meet up with Misaki as soon as possible.

Mao huffed. "Fine, don't tell me. But one of the contractors you were fighting was PL-282, right?"

"I don't know their Messier codes," Hei said.

"Code name Morado? I'm told you and he were on the same squad in South America. He disappeared towards the end of the conflict."

"Yes." This could work to his advantage, Hei realized. "I saw him earlier today and tracked him to the embassy."

"Hm. That was unusually enterprising of you. But it's not exactly the first time you've gone off half-cocked when one of your old war buddies has shown up, is it." The cat eyed him curiously. "You went to the embassy to kill him, I assume?"

"Yes. Another contractor got in my way."

"Good." Mao stood and jumped down from Yin's lap. "Your orders are the same as they were five years ago. Bring him in; if he refuses, execute him. Yin said you told her to meet you here."

"He's going to Yokohama. I need to bring her with me to track him."

"Yokohama, huh. Guess that leaves me out - unless you want Huang to drive us?"

Hei could tell that an hour in the car with Huang and himself was the last thing that Mao wanted. "I can handle him on my own."

He watched until Mao had trotted down the street and out of sight around a corner, then stood. "Let's go, Yin."

~~~~o~~~~

Misaki's phone rang right as she reached her car. She answered while unlocking the door. "Kirihara."

"Chief! Ah, sorry to interrupt your day off…"

She suppressed a sigh. She should have expected this. "What is it, Saitou?"

"Astronomics picked up some contractor activity at the Chinese Embassy. PL-282, FA-004, and BK-201. FA-004's star has fallen. There are also reports of a car fire near the embassy. The Chinese are refusing any kind of police aid though, so we don't know what actually happened."

_Damn it_. Normally this kind of information would have her running back to the office, day off or no. She got into the car, grimacing at the mess of food wrappers and coffee cups that she'd left. "Are the contractors still active?"

"No. Things have been quiet for the past twenty minutes."

"It sounds like everything is under control," she told Saitou. "Am I needed for anything?"

"Uh, no," Saitou sounded uncomfortable. "We just thought…the Chinese Embassy, and BK-201…this might have something to do with the MSS business from earlier this week."

Misaki started up the engine. "You're probably right. But if the Chinese aren't willing to cooperate, there isn't much we can do. Thanks for letting me know; but I have to hang up now, I'm driving."

"Right! Sorry Chief!"

"Wait," Misaki said as a thought occurred to her. "PL-282. What do we know about him?" She switched over to speaker phone so that she could shift, and pulled out onto the street.

"We're still working on that," Saitou replied. "So far we don't have much. He's believed to have been involved in the South American conflict. In recent years, his activity has been sporadic and scattered; Matsumoto thinks he's probably more like a gun for hire than a regular intelligence operative."

"Hm. A new hire by the MSS maybe, to deal with…whatever it is that had them sending those other two contractors here? Do we know what his affiliation was during the war?"

"Negative. He's almost as much a mystery as BK-201. Say, they were both in South America - do you think they know each other? Were they working together at the embassy?"

"No idea," Misaki said. "Call me if you find out anything concrete; otherwise, it can wait until Monday."

Misaki ended the call. She felt guilty for brushing Saitou off like that, and even guiltier knowing that she herself was involved in the contractor activity that he was reporting. A star had fallen; Hei must have killed that contractor he was fighting. It wasn't exactly a surprise, but she'd been more comfortable in her ignorance.

Then she remembered the contractor that _she'd_ killed, last night. Saitou hadn't mentioned him; either they hadn't been able to connect him to the MSS, or else homicide hadn't identified him as a contractor. Or maybe they hadn't even found the body - Hei hadn't said what he'd done to "clean up" the site. She wasn't going to ask.

Misaki kept telling herself that it was Hei she was helping, not BK-201. It made her feel better about what she was doing; though somehow, she didn't think that the Director would see the difference. Was there a difference?

She made good time to Shinbashi, driving as fast as she dared. A terse "it's classified" would get her out of a traffic stop; however, she couldn't risk word of her extracurricular activity getting back to the department. But she arrived without incident, stopping only briefly to fill the gas tank. She pulled over under the crossing, engine idling. Even on the weekend this was a busy part of the city, and she wondered if she should have given Hei a more detailed location to meet. But then Misaki realized stupidly that the bottle of water she'd picked up at the gas station would be more than enough for Yin to be able to locate her.

Sure enough, she only had to wait for five minutes before Hei opened her car door. He was still in his cap and jacket; Yin was wearing a cap as well, pink with a touristy logo like you'd find at an airport or large train station. Most of her hair was tucked under, hidden from casual view.

"Any problems?" Hei asked, helping Yin into the back seat.

"Hello, Misaki," Yin said in her usual emotionless voice.

Misaki smiled. "Hi Yin - good to see you. No, no problems. You?" she asked Hei as he got into the passenger seat. As soon as he shut the door, she put the car in gear and pulled out into traffic.

"Almost," Hei answered. He tugged the cap down low over his face and slouched in the seat. It wouldn't be good for either of them if he was seen in her car. She supposed that was why Yin was wearing the hat; her silver hair was too distinctive.

"What happened?"

"The higher-ups know I was active at the embassy. But they know Morado was there too; I have orders to find him."

His organization already knew about the star activity? That meant they must have a mole, either in Astronomics or in Section 4. She didn't like that thought at all. "You're not in trouble for the embassy?"

He shrugged. "I don't always wait for instructions."

"Or follow the ones you're given?" Misaki asked wryly. She glanced over at Hei, but his expression looked troubled. "Can I ask why they want you to find Morado? They don't know anything about Xu, do they?"

"I don't think so. Mao suspects something is going on, but I don't think he'll say anything. Morado…he used to work for the same people I do. We were on the same team for almost a year. Then he deserted, and I was given orders to find him."

The animosity underlying his words surprised Misaki. Hei didn't seem like the sort who would take desertion as a personal affront. Most contractors wouldn't, as they didn't feel any loyalty to their organizations; with Hei she'd've thought it even less likely. Strangely, he _did_ seem to have loyalties - but to people he cared about. His sister, Yin, Xu…herself. Not to the people he worked for. Had he and Morado been friends once? Or maybe just being teammates was enough for him to feel betrayed.

"And you didn't find him?"

Hei was silent for a long moment. "No," he said finally. "He left just days before Heaven's Gate disappeared. It was chaos for a long time after that."

_Heaven's Gate.._. _Ah._ "You were hunting Morado? That's why you weren't with your sister when you lost her?" His silence told her that she'd guessed correctly. He hadn't said what he'd been ordered to do once he found Morado, but she had a feeling that the other contractor was dead no matter what. And she was driving Hei straight to him.

"Do you know your sister's Messier code?" she asked abruptly. "I can check my files, see if I have information on her. And my friend Kanami, from the bar, works in Astronomics. I can ask her for any data she has; she'll help me out without asking questions."

"It wouldn't help," Hei said, staring straight ahead at the traffic in front of them on the expressway. "There's only one person who knows what happened to Bai. But she won't talk; she's just been toying with me. That's all she's ever done." There was an angry, bitter note to his voice that worried her. Misaki heard Yin shift in the back seat and glanced in the rearview mirror; Yin shook her head slightly, eyes hidden by the bill of her hat. Was she disagreeing with Hei, or warning Misaki not to pursue the subject?

Despite her curiosity, Misaki decided to drop it; they needed to focus on finding Xu. "What can you tell me about Morado? What's his ability? How skilled is he?"

"He can boil water, or any liquid that's mostly water, as long as he's in contact with it. Blood is one of his favorite targets - don't let him get close enough to touch you. And he survived South America, which took two things: skill, and luck. Let me handle him when we find him."

Misaki was more than a little nervous about what would happen when they found Xu and Morado. She wanted to call the Yokohama section chief and bring in a team of police to arrest Morado and any other contractors that were with him - but that would compromise Hei, not to mention herself. She supposed she was just going to have to wait and play it by ear, depending on what was best for Xu.

"How close do we need to be for Yin to start looking?" she asked. "Do I need to pull over?"

"Thirty kilometers," Yin said. "I can do it from here, if I have water."

"We should be within range now. Here." Misaki handed the water bottle to Hei. "There's a coffee thermos on the floor, that might be easier for her."

Hei reached beneath his feet and found the thermos. He rolled down the window, dumping the dregs of the last of her coffee, and poured the water into it before handing it to Yin. "Start with Chinatown," he told her.

~~~~o~~~~

Yokohama's Chinatown was crowded, and the sedan was forced to navigate slowly through the throngs of people. Jiao-tu stared out through the window as they passed under one of the ornate gates, trying to memorize their route. They were probably going to kill her as soon as they had her phone, but maybe she would get a chance to run or call for help. She recognized some of the shops and restaurants; she, Mei-li, and Liang visited here frequently, especially on holidays.

The car pulled into a tight alley between two rows of store fronts and came to a stop next to a roll-up metal door; some kind of loading bay. The driver honked twice, and after a moment the door was lifted to reveal a man in a waiter's uniform. He made a motion with his hand.

"All clear," the driver said, the first words that he'd spoken since they'd left Tokyo nearly an hour ago.

The alley was barely wide enough for the car doors to open. Zhang and Chuzi both exited the vehicle. Zhang straightened his jacket with a huff and walked into the building without a word.

"Out," the contractor ordered Jiao-tu. She reluctantly slid across the bench seat to the door. Chuzi took hold of her arm and lifted her awkwardly to her feet. It was hard to keep her balance with her hands tied.

"Move the car," he told the driver. "Someplace not in Chinatown. And nowhere near water - no puddles, no street vendors, nothing."

The driver looked like he was going to object - Jiao-tu didn't think he was used to taking orders from Chuzi - but one smile from the contractor had him obeying. Chuzi then quickly ushered her into the building after Zhang.

They entered a small storage room packed with crates and boxes. Chuzi pulled her through a door in the far wall; she heard the clanging of the metal door being shut behind her. She tried to suppress a shudder. Beyond the door was a narrow hallway that smelled strongly of…peanut oil? As they headed to a staircase at the end of the hall, Jiao-tu caught a glimpse of a steam-filled kitchen. They must be in a restaurant. She wondered if it was one that she and her friends had ever eaten in.

At the top of the stairs was a large, rectangular room. Two armed guards stood on either side of the door; Jiao-tu tried not to look at their heavy guns as she passed by them. Folded-up banquet tables and chairs lined the bright, blood-red walls, and a large row of windows, covered in blinds, stretched across the back wall. An Indian man leaned up against one of the side walls, casually bouncing a racquetball up and down off the floor. She wondered if he was another contractor. A small table was set up in the center of the room; it held only a laptop computer and a landline phone. Zhang was speaking angrily with another black-suited man at the table.

"Problem?" Chuzi asked unconcernedly as he approached with Jiao-tu in tow.

Zhang's eye twitched; it was the other man who answered. "Word from the embassy. The area's settled down, and the local police have been dealt with. Shanzi was killed."

Jiao-tu half expected Chuzi to say 'I told you so,' but he just waited placidly.

"That makes four contractors we've lost this week!" Zhang said. "Four! It's not like we have an endless supply of them!" He was glaring at Chuzi as if he thought it was his fault.

"If you were buying a doll -" Chuzi began, but Zhang cut him off with a wave of his hand.

"Too expensive. _Your_ fees are exorbitant enough; I'm not paying to feed yet another useless mouth."

"Maybe you should be deciding whether the gain is worth the price," the contractor said with a slight shrug of his shoulders.

"It's not up to us to decide," the other man said, crossing his arms. He was taller than Zhang, but looked to be about the same age and was just as slim. "Government wants back in the game; they think this is the way to do it." He finally looked Jiao-tu's way. "This is the girl in possession of the item?"

"This is the girl _formerly_ in possession of the item," Chuzi said. "She has hidden it from us, but we had no time to speak before we were having to run. So, if we are secure here, we will continue now: where is it that you have left your phone? No lies now," he said, his smile not touching his eyes.

"Where's Mei-li?" Jiao-tu asked stubbornly.

Chuzi gave a put-upon sigh. "Time to bargain is over, _Anjinha_." He pulled back the sleeve of her jacket and pressed his thumb to her bare arm. Her skin began to sting, then burn. She squeezed her eyes shut against the pain.

"Not afraid of a little scar?" the contractor said in a bored voice. "How would you feel to lose all the skin off your arm?" The burning began to spread throughout her whole arm.

"He'll kill you if you hurt me!" she tried desperately, tears stinging her eyes.

To her surprise, the burning stopped. There was still a sharp pain where his thumb was touching her skin, but it was fading. She opened her eyes; Chuzi was looking at her with a slight frown on his face.

"You believe that still? Even after I promise you you are wrong?" Then his expression returned to neutral. "Your friend is elsewhere; but if you prefer, we will bring her here, and I will burn _her_ until you tell these fine men the location of your phone."

Jiao-tu's eyes widened. She had no doubt that he would do as he said. "Okay! Okay. Don't hurt her. I hid my phone in a shrine by Nogizaka station. Under a bridge."

"The name of this shrine?" the unknown man asked.

She shook her head. "I don't know. I can find it, if you take me there." Maybe once back in Tokyo, she could find a chance to escape. Maybe Tian was still looking for her there.

Chuzi gave a sharp laugh. "Clever girl, to ask to be brought away. A map should do, I think." He gestured to the laptop on the table in front of them; the unknown man sat down and started typing.

"Nogizaka station," he muttered. "How you write that?"

" _Eu não sei_. I agree to work for the Chinese, so I learn Chinese, not Japanese." Jiao-tu thought Chuzi sounded irritated, but it was hard to tell.

"There," Zhang said, pointing to the screen. "It's not far from the embassy."

The man turned the laptop towards Jiao-tu. "Is this the shrine?"

She leaned forward and squinted at the screen, trying to picture the street in her mind. "I think so. There's a pond in the middle of it, and a bridge. I hid the phone up under the bridge."

The man picked up the phone and dialed a number. Zhang gave her a cold look. "The phone had better be there," he said, letting the threat hang unspoken, then jerked his head at Chuzi.

"Sit and be quiet, _Anjinha_ ," Chuzi told her, guiding her to the corner underneath one of the windows. "We will be with you again shortly." He started to turn away, then stopped and frowned at her. The expression was even more unsettling than his smiles.

"You left your phone near water, you said?"

"Um, yes. A pond." Why did that matter?

His frown deepened. "If he was seeing you go to the embassy, then he was seeing you hide your phone. Perhaps it is me he is hunting, not you…" The contractor muttered something in Portuguese that sounded like a curse, then returned to the table to join the two officials.

Jiao-tu glanced at the door to the stairs; the two armed men were blocking it, and the third man was still bouncing the ball and ignoring everyone else as if he was alone in the room. Her knees were weak with nerves and she wasn't sure she'd be able to sit without collapsing outright. As she turned to attempt it, she saw who else was sitting in the corner.

"Arakawa?"


	26. Chapter 26

He was wedged as far into the corner as he could get, knees pulled up to his chest and hands bound. He glanced up when Jiao-tu said his name; at the sight of his face her knees gave out, and she sat down hard on the floor. Arakawa's eye was still purple and swollen; the other side of his face was covered in a scabbed and blistering burn in the shape of a hand. She felt her own arm stinging where Chuzi had touched it, but was afraid to look.

"Ah, Xu," he said in a dead voice. "They caught you too, huh?"

As horrified as she was by his injuries, Jiao-tu felt a surge of anger break through her fear.

"Caught me? They were only after me because you put your stupid file on my phone! You almost got me killed!" And still might. She couldn't punch him with her hands bound, but she was able to get a few kicks to connect with his shin and knee before Chuzi was crouching in front of her. He caught her chin in his hand and jerked her face forward. His fingers were unnaturally hot on her skin.

" _I said_ _quiet_ , Anjinha!" he hissed in Chinese, the first truly negative reaction she'd seen from him. " _Behave, or your face too will have a lovely new design._ " He let go roughly and stalked back to the table.

Jiao-tu settled back against the wall, trying not to touch her chin. She was pretty sure that she'd just imagined the burning. At least, she hoped so. Arakawa uncurled himself slowly, as if he thought she was going to attack him again despite the contractor's threat. He uncapped a half-empty plastic water bottle that had been hidden in his lap and awkwardly took a sip.

"You're the one who told them you hid the key on my phone?" Jiao-tu muttered quietly.

"Don't blame me," he shot back in an equally low voice. "I had to do something - the professor was going to sell my research! I don't know how he encrypted the files, but there's only one copy of the key; I wanted to protect it. I don't know how these people found out, but they knew that I had back-up copies of the encrypted files. They grabbed me yesterday, and that - that _contractor_ " he practically spit the word out "did _this_. I had to give them the files, and your name."

"You burned down your own lab and killed the professor." _And almost killed Tian._ She was finding it hard to believe that she'd ever had a crush on Arakawa. Mei-li and Arakawa had talked after she'd left them at the fire, she remembered. Mei-li must have been the one to tell the MSS that he had back-ups.

"I didn't know he was in there!" Arakawa protested. "I had to make sure that he couldn't sell the research."

"Why? You wanted to sell it yourself, to Pandora?" she asked. That's what Kirihara had thought.

Arakawa sighed in exasperation. As he spoke, a couple of his scabs cracked open and oozed blood. "If we give this information to just one country, they'll use it to monopolize contractor-based intelligence and warfare, for their own gain. Nothing will change. It needs to be in the hands of a neutral organization - Pandora. They have their own scientists and experts - they can take my theories and expand on them, maybe find a way to strip all contractors of their powers, and finally rid us of those monsters completely!"

Were contractors monsters? Everything she'd heard said that they were; even Tian seemed to think so. Tian killed people. So did Xing, according to both Tian and Chuzi; Chuzi certainly frightened her. But…Tian had made dinner for her. And hugged her when she was upset, and let her sleep at his place two nights in a row because she was afraid. Kirihara didn't seem to think he was a monster, and she was a cop.

"My cousins are contractors," she confessed.

"Then I feel sorry for you," Arakawa said bitterly. He looked over to the center of the room. "What's his problem?"

Jiao-tu followed his gaze. Chuzi was arguing with Zhang and the other official, his Chinese even more garbled than usual in his urgency. He was pointing to a small zen fountain that was sitting on a little table by the door. She realized that Arakawa couldn't understand what he was saying.

"He's trying to get them to move the fountain out. He's worried about someone using it to find us." He'd told the driver not to leave the car by water, and was concerned that Jiao-tu had left her phone by a pond. And what had he said earlier, when they were in the car? "Do you know what a water doll is?" she asked Arakawa.

Her former teaching assistant shrugged. "A doll? Dolls are like contractors, people who were changed by the Gates, but they're even less human. They're empty shells. No emotions, no thoughts, no souls. Mostly they're used for surveillance - tracking people and spying on them. I don't really understand how they work; no one that I know of at Tokodai is researching dolls."

"They see through water?"

"They see through whatever their medium is - stone, metal, water. Things like that."

Chuzi had succeeded in convincing Zhang and the other man to move the fountain. One of the guards started to move forward, but Chuzi insisted that the nameless man be the one to do it. Despite his earlier words, the contractor must still be worried that Tian might find them. Arakawa watched the fountain leave the room. "I guess I'd better give this back to them then." He picked up the water bottle.

"No!" Jiao-tu hissed. She glanced back towards the table; no one was paying them any attention. The Indian man near the door continued to ignore everyone in favor of his ball game. "Hide it!"

Arakawa's frown turned into a wince as his blistered skin stretched. "Why? They'll hurt me again if they know I'm hiding it, and do we really want other contractors finding us? At least with this group, we're still alive."

They were still speaking quietly, but Jiao-tu lowered her voice even further. "I want my cousin to find us! He tried to stop them from taking me, and Chuzi said something about how his water doll couldn't follow us. If we can keep the water hidden, maybe it'll help him." She didn't really understand how someone could look through water to spy on people, but whether she understood it or not hardly mattered; _Chuzi_ seemed worried that Tian would find them with water, so she would do whatever she could to keep water in the room.

Arakawa snorted. "If your cousin really is a contractor, and he really is looking for you - it won't be to save you. I told you: contractors aren't human." But she saw him tuck the bottle into his lap again and cover it with his arms.

Just in time; no sooner had Arakawa hidden the bottle, than the phone on the table rang. Zhang answered, spoke a few words, then shook his head. He and Chuzi turned towards Jiao-tu and Arakawa.

" _There was no phone there_ ," Zhang said, stepping forward, his tone icy. " _Are you sure - absolutely sure - that you told us the right location?_ "

_"Um…_ " Jiao-tu said, her heart in her throat. Why wasn't the phone there? She was almost sure that she'd pointed out the correct shrine. " _Maybe they just looked at the wrong pond?_ "

" _Or maybe_ o Anjo Negro _has found it for himself,_ " Chuzi said. Jiao-tu thought that the contractor looked worried. He was probably still wondering whether Tian was looking for her or for him. But since they were both in the same room, it probably didn't make a difference.

" _Let's make sure that she isn't lying before we move on to that scenario_ ," Zhang said. " _Chuzi_."

" _If you are lying,_ Anjihna _, now would be the time to stop_ ," the contractor said, pulling her to her feet.

Jiao-tu struggled against his grip at first - but then she looked past him and saw who was standing in the doorway. A man all in black: the man from the park, the man from the embassy. Even without the mask, Tian's eyes were cold and dark, and she knew why he was called _Hei Tianshi_.


	27. Chapter 27

Hei paused in the doorway only long enough to take in the scene. Yin had identified and scouted the room from the car: two armed guards flanking the door, an official, a prisoner, and a man who might be a contractor, who hadn't looked up to see her before she'd found a more hidden location. She'd heard Morado bring in Jiao-tu, but hadn't been able to see much from her new vantage point, though she'd guessed at just one additional man. It looked like she'd been accurate.

Hei had left Misaki downstairs, handcuffing an unconscious MSS official, but he couldn't afford to wait for backup. Jiao-tu was his priority, and there were five people between him and her. Moving with the speed on which he'd depended in South America, he dashed into the room and slammed the hilt of his knife backhanded into the temple of the guard to his right. As the guard collapsed against the wall, the other guard moved forward and swung his right fist at Hei's face. Hei dodged; the guard recovered quickly and jabbed at Hei's ribcage with his left, but Hei had anticipated him. He caught the guard's arm between his biceps and his ribs, then flexed and jerked hard, cracking the guard's elbow, while he slammed his knee into the man's diaphragm. A jolt of electricity to his head as the man doubled over finished the job.

While Hei was engaged with the second guard, the Indian contractor had been drawing on his power. The ball he was holding glowed with synchrotron radiation and flew from his hand straight at Hei's head. Hei reacted on instinct and brought up his knife to protect his face; the ball rebounded off the blade, snapping it, and hit the wall beside the contractor, where it lodged in the drywall and smoked with an acrid steam.

The contractor had ducked the ball but was already charging forward. Hei moved forward to meet him, jabbing at him with his left fist, followed by a right hook. The contractor dodged both swings easily; but Hei let the momentum from his right carry him forward and down, and brought his leg up behind him, knee bent, to catch the man's neck with a sharp blow from his heel. The contractor collapsed, and before he had a chance to get up, Hei bent and electrocuted him.

He drew his other knife and turned to the rest of the room, tensed and ready. There was a table with a laptop computer resting on it between him and the others. The suited man had his gun out and was aiming at him; but the shot that rang out came from behind Hei. Misaki had caught up _._ The man dropped his weapon, crying out in pain and clutching his arm as blood ran down to drip from his hand. He backed up against the rear wall, eyes wide, and didn't try to retrieve his gun. Misaki must have her weapon trained on him.

And next to him was Morado. He stood calmly behind Jiao-tu, with one hand gripping her arm. His other hand was around her throat. Jiao-tu's face was white with fear.

" _Oi, Hei - e aí?"_ the contractor said, smiling in that careless way he'd always had. Hei tightened his grip on his knife, and focused on Morado. He was afraid of what he would see in Jiao-tu's eyes.

"Is your Portuguese rusty?" Morado continued when Hei didn't answer. "It has been a while, eh? I'm sure you won't mind English then - it is so much better than my Chinese, and I don't want us to have a misunderstanding. I know you're here for the little angel, or you would have already thrown your knife. So, let's bargain, _meu amigo_."

"Let her go, Morado" Hei said, his voice tight. He heard Misaki come up beside him so that she had a better angle on the man against the wall, but she was still far enough that Hei had room to maneuver. Morado was holding Jiao-tu too close for her to risk a shot at him.

"Tch, 'Morado' - 'Roxo', they should have named me. Did they think I was Colombian?" The contractor shook his head; Hei had heard this complaint before. He didn’t know why the man cared. "The only way I'm letting her go is if you let me go. But first, your friend there lowers her gun. My friend Zhang is harmless now, but it is making me nervous."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Misaki glance at him. She brought her gun down, but still held it ready. Hei had no intention of letting Morado leave the room alive. He narrowed his eyes. "Your former employers know you're here."

"And they sent you to kill me? Come now, Hei, what's more important to you: obeying your orders, or saving this girl who looks so much like Bai?" Jiao-tu whimpered a little as Morado's hand tightened on her throat. "You have the girl's phone, yes? Here is my offer: the girl for the phone. My current employers will continue to look for her if they think she still has it. Letting me go with the phone so that I can tell them to leave her be is the rational choice."

"You want me to be rational?" Hei said in a low voice. If he could catch Morado off guard, make him shift away from Jiao-tu, he might be able to hit him before the contractor had a chance to use his power …

" _Hei_ ," Misaki said, " _it makes sense. Wasn't that your plan all along? To hand over the phone?_ " She spoke in Japanese, but she was clearly following the English exchange well enough.

"That's right," the Chinese man said, still clutching his injured arm and looking anxiously from Hei to Misaki. "My superiors know all about the file on her phone; give it to us, and we'll let you all go."

"Oh, English for you too now?" Morado smiled at the other man, then turned back to Hei. "Of course my friend Zhang is right; he or I could deliver this message equally well. So, as a sign of good faith…"

Morado pushed Jiao-tu away from him and grabbed Zhang's arm. Before Zhang realized what was happening, Morado had released his power. Hei heard a gasp from Misaki that was quickly drowned out by Zhang's choking scream. But it was over in seconds. Zhang's body dropped to the floor, blood bubbling from his eyes, nose, and the pores of his face. The boiling blood hissed and steamed when it made contact with the air.

Jiao-tu was crouched on the floor, crying. Misaki cautiously made her way over to her, weapon lowered but still ready. Morado made no move to stop her.

"Still the same," Morado said, glancing towards Misaki and smiling cheerfully. "Always with two women. You have a new sister; is this your new lover? If I hadn't seen you use your power, I wouldn't believe you really are a contractor. Certainly it is irrational to leave aside your orders to protect this girl."

Hei ignored his comments. "I need to know: do you know where my sister is?" Misaki had reached Jiao-tu; she pulled his cousin to her feet and led her back towards Hei, away from the contractor.

Morado's expression turned bemused. "Don't you? How would I know, if you do not?"

He was probably telling the truth, Hei thought. He hadn't been there when the Gate and Bai had disappeared; he'd been running away from it. "What about Amber? Are you working with her?"

At the mention of Amber's name, the color drained from Morado's face. "Amber? You don't mean…she's not in the city, is she? _Merda!_ I left the war to get _away_ from her!"

It was a believable reaction, and Morado had never bothered much with feigning emotions. Still, he might be lying; Morado and Amber had always gotten along. Why would he have run because of her? And he hadn't used up all of his power yet, Hei was almost sure. He shifted his grip on his knife.

Morado tensed; Misaki caught the movement as well. " _We need to let him go, or the MSS will still be after Xu. Hei!_ "

" _Hei Tianshi,"_ Jiao-tu mumbled. It physically hurt to hear her use that name. Hei looked at his cousin; she was shaking despite Misaki's arm around her shoulders and her face was wet with tears. Right now, Jiao-tu was more important than Bai.

"Fine," he said, and sheathed the knife. He held out his hand towards Misaki, but kept his eyes on Morado. "Phone?"

Misaki let go of Jiao-tu long enough to fish the purple phone from her pocket. She handed it to Hei. Morado stepped forward cautiously to take it, but when he was still a few feet away, Hei activated his power and fried the phone. A little wisp of smoke rose up from it.

" _Má sorte_ ," he said, and tossed the phone to Morado.

"Ah. Indeed. _Filha da puta_ ," the contractor said with a shrug. He tucked the still-smoking phone into his jacket pocket. "And without the key, the boy is no longer useful. Well, China must surely have someone who can unencrypt these files. He is your problem now." Morado jerked his head toward the young man who was sitting huddled in the corner; he didn't appear to have moved an inch since Hei had entered the room. Yin's specter was floating in the water bottle he was clutching white-knuckled.

"You know that if anything happens to her, it's you I'll be coming for," Hei warned.

Morado's smile tightened a little. "As I said: still the same. Don't worry, _Anjo Negro_ , I know what is in my best interest."

"Behind you." Hei spun at Yin's warning to see that one of the guards had awakened and was bringing up his handgun from his prone position on the floor. The man's aim was shaky, and Hei immediately saw that the shot was going to go wide. Towards Misaki and Jiao-tu. Hei threw himself in front of them just as the guard fired. The bullet ricocheted off of Hei's coat to hit the wall, barely missing Morado. Hei drew his knife and threw it without hesitation; the knife impaled the man's chest before he could get off another shot, jerking him back.

"That is a neat trick, _meu amigo,_ " The contractor observed, looking at the bullet hole.

"I'm not your friend."

Morado smiled. "Nor am I yours. _Até mais, certamente espero que não_. _Tchau!_ " He waved his hand airily, then swept the laptop off the table and carried it out of the room, whistling jauntily.


	28. Chapter 28

"Jiao-tu, are you alright?" Hei asked wearily. He took a step towards her, drawing the small knife from the sheath on his leg; she flinched slightly. He didn't blame her. He stopped in his tracks, then flipped the knife so that he was holding it by the blade and held it out to Misaki.

"Where's your mask?" Jiao-tu asked, wiping her face with her sleeve. She'd stopped crying; Hei was relieved that at least she wasn't trying to run from him.

"It broke, at the embassy. I didn't want to take the time to pick up a new one." And he hadn't wanted to scare her further.

"Did he hurt you at all?" Misaki asked her. She took the knife from Hei and carefully cut Jiao-tu's bonds.

Jiao-tu shook her head. "Well, just a little, earlier. He burned my arm. But Arakawa is hurt worse."

Misaki turned to Arakawa, who hadn't moved from the corner, and gasped at the sight of his face. "He needs an ambulance."

"It'll keep a few minutes," Hei said. He'd seen people survive far worse from Morado.

"Who are you people?" the young man finally spoke up, now that attention was on him. His voice was shaking. "Are you Xu's cousins?"

"I told him my cousin was looking for me with a water doll so I could convince him to keep his water bottle hidden," Jiao-tu said. "Did it help?"

Hei wondered how she'd gotten that idea. "Yes," he told her. "Yin wouldn't have found you so quickly otherwise."

He walked over to Arakawa, who cringed back into the corner. "Get away from me, contractor!" he spat out. Hei ignored him and placed his hand on Arakawa's head.

"What are you - don't!" Jiao-tu said, but Hei had already released his power. Arakawa collapsed; Hei let him fall to the floor.

"He's fine," Misaki was telling Jiao-tu. "He's just knocked out - right?" She shot Hei a look.

Hei returned to them and held out his hand for the knife. "Right. I just erased his memory of the last few hours. I don't want him knowing that Misaki or I were here." Misaki handed him the knife, which he returned to its sheath.

Jiao-tu blinked at him. "How can you can do that?"

He shrugged. "The brain is governed by electrical activity; I just disrupt the process that stores memories." He didn't really understand how it worked, but a Syndicate doctor had explained that to him once. "Can I see your burn?"

He waited until she pulled up the sleeve of her jacket; then he removed his gloves and gently took her arm. She didn't flinch this time. There was a thumb-sized red welt on her inner forearm. "It's not bad. It'll hurt, and you'll have a scar, but there isn't any serious damage."

"How are _your_ burns?"

"What?" Hei looked up at her. She was concerned about him? After everything she'd just seen? "They're fine."

"Are you lying?" Jiao-tu asked accusingly.

He released her arm. "Maybe."

Jiao-tu looked down at her feet. "Did you - did you really come to save me? You already found my phone; Chuzi thought you might be looking for him."

"Of course I came for you," Hei told her sharply. "You're still my family; I still care about you." Chuzi must be Morado; the name fit.

She didn't look up at him. "That's why you burned my phone? Even though you were looking for the key that Arakawa put on it? I mean," she added hurriedly, "I just thought you were looking for it, because of something Chuzi said."

"And not because you were listening to me talk to Misaki last night?" Hei said, raising an eyebrow. "Because the walls were too thin? Or the door just wouldn't close all the way? Or were we just talking too loudly?"

That earned him a sheepish smile. "The wall was pretty thin. But you were talking almost too quietly to hear, I had to press my ear right up against it. I'm sorry I ran away; I was just scared, and angry."

Hei shrugged uncomfortably. "Maybe I should have told you more than I did. I just…didn't want you to see who I am now."

Yin's voice broke in over the radio: "The police specters are looking for the source of the gunshots and contractor activity. I asked them to wait before alerting the police."

Hei and Misaki looked at each other. "The police specters reach Yokohama?" Hei asked.

Misaki nodded. "Kanami told me once that when dolls are networked together, they can reach further than one doll can alone." Then she frowned. "Yin talks to them?"

That was the first Hei had heard of it. "We need to get out of here. I'll take Jiao-tu to Huang to have her memories erased."

"What?" Jiao-tu said, at the same time Misaki said, "No!"

Hei looked between them.

"What do you mean, erase my memory? Why?" Jiao-tu looked like she was going to start crying again.

"Jiao-tu, it's not safe for you to know who I am. Do you understand that? People who know me get hurt." He hadn't expected her to resist the idea. "I need to erase your memories of having met me. And do you really want to remember this?" he added, gesturing to the red, sticky mess that was Zhang.

"No," she said in a quavering voice, not looking towards the body. "But…I want to remember you saving me."

Hei started to shake his head, but before he could respond, Jiao-tu continued, her voice rising angrily. "I spent the last ten years thinking you were dead! Do you know what that's like? Not knowing whether someone you care about is even alive?"

"Yes," he said quietly.

"Well, I don't want to go back to that!" It was hard to ignore the plea in her voice.

Misaki was smiling sadly next to her. "And with everything you've done to protect Xu already, do you really want to bring her to the attention of your superiors?"

Hei rubbed the back of his head in frustration.

"Anyway," Misaki continued, "I need her as a witness, to help explain this…this mess."

"What do you mean, explain? No one knows you were here; we need to leave, and keep it that way."

But Misaki's face was set. "No. I'm not just walking away from this. We have an open case involving two dead MSS contractors, and I'm going to close it."

Hei sighed. He did owe her at least that. "Fine. Do you know how you're going to explain your presence here?"

Misaki nodded. "I gave Xu my phone number at the park; she called me earlier this afternoon because she thought someone was following her. I was already at a friend's in Roppongi, so I went to meet her, but she wasn't there because the MSS grabbed her and took her to the embassy. Then Saitou called to tell me about the contractor fight. I connected the dots, and had a hunch they might take her to Yokohama, so I drove out here. They were questioning Xu when BK-201 interrupted; in the confusion, Xu slipped out and called me from the phone in the restaurant downstairs. When I arrived, the contractors were gone."

Hei stared at her, but she just shrugged. "It was a long drive, and you were quiet for most of it. I had time to think. We can iron out the details later, but for now that should work. Arakawa can testify to his role in this, and the fact that Xu was involved unwittingly. We even have a text copy of the key, that we pulled off of her phone earlier."

It was a better story than anything he could come up with. His end was simple: just tell the Syndicate that Morado ran and he lost him when the police interfered. "We should get downstairs. You can call the police from there."

Hei led the way to the door, but paused by the dead guard. He removed his knife from the man's chest and wiped the blood off (Jiao-tu looked away); then he picked up the guard's gun, ejected the clip, and removed a bullet.

"Here," he said, standing and handing the bullet to Misaki; she looked at him blankly. "Nine millimeter, the same as yours. There are two bullets in this room: you shot once, the guard shot once. Replace your bullet with one of his, and now, he shot twice, and you weren't involved."

"Oh. Right." Obviously she wasn't used to concealing a crime. "Speaking of bullets," she said as they headed down the stairs, "that's the second time I've seen a bullet bounce right off of you. How do you do that?" Hei thought she sounded a little offended.

"It's my coat - it's bulletproof." The restaurant below was empty. Hei had forced the MSS official to dismiss the restaurant staff before knocking him out; the workers had left easily enough, most likely used to this sort of business. The official was still unconscious and handcuffed to the base of the stairs. Jiao-tu gave his leg a kick as she passed.

"Really?" Misaki said. "Where do you get the material? It's a lot lighter than Kevlar. Of course, the ricochets are dangerous, but -"

He cut her off before she could fantasize any further. "It only works when I wear it; my power activates it."

"Hm…so next time I should aim for your head?"

He was pretty sure she was joking.

Yin was waiting inside the open loading bay, sitting on a crate in the corner. Hei frowned. "Yin, I told you to wait in the car. Is something wrong?"

"No," she said, with no further explanation.

"Yin is the one who found me in the water, right?" Jiao-tu asked. "You told her to keep an eye on me?"

"She's part of my team." She was coming to be an irreplaceable part of that team; or maybe she already was. "And I didn't tell her anything; she was watching you because she knows you're my family."

Jiao-tu smiled. "Thank you, Yin."

The doll didn't answer except to nod her head slightly.

"I should call the Yokohama section chief before it gets any later," Misaki said, and took out her phone.

"Wait!" Jiao-tu said, sudden alarm on her face. "What about Mei-li?"

"Do you know where she is?" Misaki asked. "She wasn't here; I'd assumed they left her at the embassy."

"I don't know; they put her in a different car…but I'm pretty sure Chuzi told the driver to take her to the Yokohama base."

Misaki frowned. "They must have another safe house here."

"If she's in Yokohama, Yin will find her," Hei promised. Yin nodded again.

Misaki was still holding her phone, but she hesitated before dialing. "Hei, can I ask you something?"

He had a feeling that he knew what she was going to ask, but he waited to let her speak.

"I know you don't like the work you do, and you obviously have loyalties that go beyond your organization. Why don't you turn yourself in? We can work out an immunity deal in exchange for any information you can give us about the people you work for."

It was what he'd expected, but that didn't make it any easier to answer. "No," he said, trying to sound severe but knowing that he was failing. "I'm a contractor; I belong where I am. Besides, the people I work for…it's not so easy to walk away from them. They deal harshly with deserters."

"What do they do?" Jiao-tu asked, sounding worried.

"Usually, they send me," Hei told her bluntly. "Morado deserted five years ago; he's lucky that he's still alive. He'll be on his way to China already if he's smart, but it won't be long until someone is following. If I leave, I'll have to run until one of their assassins kills me, police protection or no. It's not worth the risk." He glanced at Yin. "And I have a team here who depends on me."

He turned back to Misaki. "After tonight we go back to our original deal: you forget what you've seen; you forget that you know me." It hurt to say it, and the disappointed look in her eyes didn't help; but it was necessary. She knew that as well as he did. "And that goes for you too, Jiao-tu. Can you promise not to tell anyone - not your friends, not your parents, or Grandfather, or anyone - that I'm alive, and you've seen me?"

She frowned, biting her lip, but nodded.

For all her eavesdropping tendencies, Jiao-tu was usually good at keeping secrets; but if she let the wrong thing slip to the wrong people… "Are you sure? Not a word, do you understand?"

"Of course," she said with irritation.

"She's family," Yin added quietly.

~~~~o~~~~

"Good news," Misaki told Xu, walking over to the ambulance where the other woman was seated, arm newly-bandaged. Another ambulance had already taken Arakawa to the nearest hospital. Night had fallen while the Yokohama team secured the scene, and blue and red lights lit up the street outside the restaurant. To Misaki's surprise, only the guard that Hei had knifed was dead (aside from Zhang, of course); the others were all unconscious, but still alive. "They found your roommate."

"Really?" Xu said, perking up a little. After she'd told the bare bones of the story that she and Misaki had decided on to the investigators, she'd hardly said a word. Probably it was the shock of everything that had happened finally hitting home; but Misaki thought that part of her depression might be due to her cousin having disappeared from the loading bay without saying goodbye. That was hurting Misaki more than a little too; she'd been discussing the story with Xu, and when she turned back to ask Hei a question, he and Yin were gone.

Misaki sat down next to her and nodded. "She was being held in the back of a grocer's on the other side of Chinatown; the police received an anonymous tip and raided the place. They arrested the man holding her, and are taking her to the hospital. She seems to be in better condition than Arakawa, at least."

Xu sighed in relief. "I'm glad she's okay. An anonymous tip…was that Tian?"

"Probably. Are you ready to go? You're officially my witness still, and I say your statement can wait until tomorrow." Saitou and Kouno had driven down to coordinate with the Yokohama Foreign Affairs detectives, and between their questions and awe at their chief's perspicacity in breaking the MSS case (and displeasure that she hadn't called for backup), Misaki was ready to get away.

Xu nodded, and Misaki led her to her car. "It's official policy to erase the memories of everyone who comes into contact with a contractor," Misaki said. At Xu's worried look, she hurried on. "But you already knew something about them before you got involved in this, and your teaching assistant obviously is familiar with them; so I think I'll be able to get that requirement waived in your case." She looked at the young woman. "That is, if you're sure you want to keep those memories?"

"I'm sure," Xu said, her face set.

As they got into the car, Misaki noticed that Hei's jacket and hat were gone; so was the cap that Yin had been wearing. How could someone who had such a large presence in her life leave so little trace? She hadn't really expected him to agree to give himself up, but she had hoped that he might.

Traffic was light when Misaki turned onto the expressway, the lights of the city flashing by. Xu stared out the window. Though she tried to distract herself, Misaki was mostly occupied with thoughts of Hei. His exchange with Morado had been infuriately enigmatic. Morado had assumed that she was Hei's lover, because he'd always been in the company of a lover in the past? Who was that? It made her feel more than a little jealous, the thought that she wasn't alone in Hei's affections.

And who had Hei been asking Morado about? Who was Amber, and what was she to Hei?

"I don't understand," Xu said abruptly. Misaki had almost forgotten that she was in the car. "You're a police officer, and you know that Tian is a criminal; why are you helping him?"

"I've been asking myself that too," Misaki admitted. "Although, this is the only time I've actually helped him, and that was because it seemed like the best way to help you. Helping the innocent is my job, even if it means I need to team up with someone I've been trying to arrest."

"What was the deal he was talking about?"

"About a month ago, I accidentally walked right into one of his team's operations." She was still kicking herself over doing something so idiotic. "I really thought he was going to kill me; any other contractor would have. But he decided to let me go, without even erasing my memory, if I promised to forget that I'd discovered his alias."

"Really?" Xu said. "Why?"

"Part of it was because he was worried that Yin might get in trouble because I followed her, and he wanted to protect her. And maybe part of it was that he just didn't want to hurt me."

"Maybe? You don't know?"

"Well, he didn't exactly say that." Although, actions did speak louder than words, didn't they?

"Tian was always too shy around girls," Xu said thoughtfully.

Shy? Strangely, it fit. She'd been the one to initiate their first kiss; and last night, his kiss had been shy and almost uncertain, until she'd taken it to another level.

"Arakawa told me that contractors are monsters," Xu continued, "and I don't think I'll ever forget seeing my own cousin kill someone in front of me…but, he was just trying to protect me. I can't think of him as a monster."

Misaki sighed. "Me either. I don't think contractors are as black and white as the rest of us try to paint them. Hei especially." She wouldn't tell Xu about the many crime scenes that Hei had left behind, where he hadn't been trying to protect anything except his employers' interests.

"You really like him, don't you."

Was it that obvious? She supposed it was. "My personal feelings notwithstanding, he's right that we can't see each other again. It's too risky for both of us." Maybe if she said it enough times, she'd believe it. "I'll lose my job, maybe even get arrested, if my department finds out I've been protecting him. If his employers find out…I don't know what they'd do." Probably they'd order him to kill her. She wondered what he'd do if he did get that order. She was pretty sure that he wouldn't go through with it, but what would be the penalty to him? She didn't want him risking himself for her sake.

They drove the rest of the way in silence, both lost in their own thoughts, until Misaki pulled up in front of Xu's apartment building. "Are you going to be alright alone tonight?" she asked Xu.

The other women sighed. "I keep thinking that I want to go stay over at Tian's again. But I guess I can't do that anymore, can I. My roommate should be home; I won't be alone."

"Let me give you my personal number, in case you need anything. It'll help support our story, at least." Misaki started rummaging around for something to write on; she hadn't brought her purse on her stakeout.

"Actually, I already have it." Xu smiled in embarrassment. "I found the business card you gave Tian, and he threw it away when I teased him about it. But I saved it, just in case he changed his mind. That was before I knew he didn't have a phone."

Hei had kept the card with her number?

Xu got out of the car, but didn't shut the door. Instead she stood by it, gazing up at the night sky. "Is it true?" she asked. "That every contractor is linked to a star?"

"It's true," Misaki said. She stepped out of the car herself, and scanned the sky. "That one," she said, pointing up. She didn't know any of the other stars' identities, but a couple of weeks ago she'd asked Kanami to show just one to her. "The one just above that tree. That's your cousin's star."

"Really?" Xu smiled up at it. "I've always loved that star."


	29. Chapter 29

For the past two days, life had seemed almost surreal to Jiao-tu. She watched the other students in her classes, blissfully unaware of the existence of contractors, or else cheerfully discussing the rumors as if they were fairy tales, or a story out of some comic book. She wasn't going to disillusion them; she wished that she could go back to that comfortable naïveté herself.

Saturday and Sunday night she'd hardly slept at all for the dreams - dreams about windstorms, and blood, and betrayal. But she still meant what she'd said to Tian and Chief Kirihara; as much as she'd like to forget what she'd seen in the park, and in Yokohama, she never wanted to forget her cousin. No matter how bad the dreams got, they always ended with a man in black - sometimes with Tian's face, sometimes with a blank white mask - telling her that it would be alright, that she was safe. And she knew that he was telling the truth. The dreams would probably fade with time. She hoped.

With the death of Iwakara and Arakawa's arrest, Jiao-tu's physics class was cancelled until they could find a replacement teacher, and she now had Monday afternoons completely free. After lunch, she was heading off campus to meet Liang when, with a shock, she spotted Tian on the crowded sidewalk up ahead of her. He gave her a significant look when he saw that he had her attention, then disappeared behind a building. He'd made her promise to pretend not to know him if they ran into each other in the city, but it looked like he wanted to talk to her. She shifted her bag on her shoulder, glanced around to see whether anyone was watching, then followed him around the corner.

He was waiting for her, leaning up against the wall with his hands in his pockets. He looked just like any other student on campus; she still found it hard to believe that he was nothing of the sort.

"I thought I wasn't supposed to see you," Jiao-tu said. She was still a little angry with the way he had left her in Yokohama, but glad of one last chance to talk to him.

"I wanted to give you this." Tian withdrew a purple phone from his pocket, the same as the one he'd burned. "Purple's still your favorite color?"

"Yes," she said, taking the phone. "Thanks - I hadn't figured out what I was going to tell Mom and Dad about my old phone yet. Wait, you didn't steal this, did you?"

He gave her a look. "I do get paid for what I do."

Jiao-tu wasn't sure she liked that idea any better than him stealing it for her; but then again, _he_ had been the one to fry her old phone, so he ought to be the one to replace it. Although, if she was being fair, _Arakawa_ should have been the one to replace it, but he was currently in the hospital, nominally under arrest.

"Thanks for finding Mei-li."

"Is she alright?" he asked. He sounded like he genuinely cared; the old Tian certainly would have.

Jiao-tu nodded. "She had to get some stitches, and she has some pretty bad burns, but she'll be alright. Chief Kirihara says that she'll probably be able to keep Mei-li from getting formally charged with anything, but she'll still be deported, for spying." Jiao-tu had spent most of the day yesterday at Kirihara's headquarters giving her statement, and the other woman had filled her in with what she knew, as well as given her the printouts of the photos that the police had pulled off her phone, for which Jiao-tu was grateful. "I haven't talked to Mei-li yet; my other roommate and I are going to go by the hospital this afternoon and see her."

"That was brave of you, trying to save her like you did. Stupid, but brave. Like a dragon."

Jiao-tu blushed at the compliment. He was smiling the shadow of a smile, almost affectionate. It was a far cry from his old smiles; she hated to think what his life was like now, that it was so hard for him to be happy.

"So," she said, turning the phone over in her hands, "you can use electricity? That's your contractor ability?"

"Yes," he said warily.

It was a fascinating idea; she'd spent a lot of the past two days thinking about it. "What sort of things can you do with it?"

He shrugged uncomfortably. "I can prevent memory formation, and I can electrocute people."

"I know that. I mean, what else can you do? How many volts can you generate? Enough to charge a car battery?"

Tian was looking at her like she was a little crazy now, but he answered anyway. "Sure - anything that involves electrical currents, I can manipulate. I can break through electronic locks and security systems, knock out the power to a building, things like that." He scratched the back of his head absently, a gesture that she well remembered from their childhood. "I fixed my landlady's television, and once I restarted my heart."

"Whoa." She didn't want to think about him being in any position where his heart would stop. "What would happen if you got struck by lightening?"

His look turned bemused. "I really don't want to find out. How is your arm?"

She pulled back her sleeve, and peeled back the edge of the bandage. The burn was pink and shiny. "Not too bad, if I keep the bandage on. It would have been worse if you hadn't found me when you did." She sighed. "It's going to be an ugly scar though."

"It looks like mine," Tian said, and showed her the inside of his arm. There was a light scar there, like a pale thumbprint. It did look like hers; that made her feel a little better about it. A little braver.

"Did Chuzi do that to you? He was scary and all, but you - you were pretty amazing." She wished that she could tell her brother about Tian; for all his national titles, he'd never actually fought anyone in earnest. He'd usually beaten Tian in their sparring, but she wasn't sure that he would now. "I can't see anyone getting close enough to hurt you."

He shook his head. "A different contractor. It would have killed me, if not for Yin and Misaki."

"Kirihara told me that Yin looks after you. I'm glad you have someone like that. And Kirihara…are you going to see her again?"

He didn't frown, but she wasn't sure she'd ever seen him look so unhappy. "It's not safe for her to be around me, anymore than it is for you. Besides, she's a cop; it's her job to arrest me. I'm surprised she hasn't tried it yet."

Jiao-tu smiled. "You know, you never did understand girls very well. She likes you; because you're not the terrible person that you think you are. You really haven't changed all that much."

This time he did frown at her.

"I mean it," she said. "Maybe the Tian I remember wouldn't ever have hurt or - or killed anyone, but you risked yourself to protect me. And Kirihara told me that you kept her and Yin from getting hurt too. That's the Tian I remember."

He shook his head. "One good deed doesn't erase everything that I've done. What I'll keep doing."

"Maybe not. But, I think, _Tian_ is part of _Hei Tianshi_. No matter how much you try to pretend otherwise."

His expression was still clouded. "I don't understand how you can even stand to look at me, after what you saw me do."

Jiao-tu huffed. "You're still my family, stupid." She slugged his shoulder. She was sure that he could have dodged it if he'd wanted to, and was grateful that he didn't. "You know, I was thinking that after this semester ends, I'll go back Xi'an and enroll in a school there."

"Really?"

Jiao-tu nodded. "I miss home. And there's no reason for me to stay here anymore; I found what I was looking for." She smiled at him, then felt her smile slip a little. "I really won't see you again after today, will I."

He looked at her sadly, but didn't say anything. She wrapped her arms around him in a fierce hug. "Just promise me one thing?" she asked. "Find Xing."

"I will," he said, determination in his voice. "I'm glad I got to you see again." He returned her hug, then released her and pressed something small into her hand.

"Goodbye, _Xiao-long_ ," he said, and smiled kindly at her before turning his back and walking around the corner of the building, hands in his pockets once more.

Jiao-tu stood rooted to the spot for a moment, surprised by the name. She recovered herself, and dashed around the corner after him; but he'd disappeared. She looked down at the object he'd put in her hand: it was the plastic jade dragon charm from her old phone, burnt black. She smiled.


	30. Chapter 30

"Astronomics has narrowed down the activity to the vicinity of Hotel Tateshina," Ootsuka's voice crackled over the radio. "Still no exact location."

"Understood." Misaki threaded her Porsche easily through the nighttime traffic; she was only two minutes from the hotel. It was a smallish building, situated in a narrow street lined with five- to ten-story office buildings, hotels, and stores. Not an easy area to cover. "Saitou, you and Kouno monitor the Yasukuni Dori exit; Matsumoto, you stay on the other end of the street. I'll watch the front entrance of the hotel."

"Roger," Saitou and Matsumoto said in unison.

Misaki pulled her car up across from the hotel and shut off the engine. She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel distractedly.

For the past three nights, she'd taken to turning on the earpiece that Hei had given her - and forgotten to take back - and listening for communications between him and his team. She wasn't really sure why she was doing it; it wasn't like she was going to use the information to ambush and arrest them, even if that was exactly what she ought to do. Maybe she just wanted to hear his voice. Until tonight, all she'd heard was a conversation - or argument, rather - between Huang and Mao about the brand of canned salmon that Huang was buying for the cat contractor. There had been nothing from either Yin or Hei.

Tonight, though, she'd still been at the office when the call had come in - contractor activity in Shinjuku, not too far from headquarters. DU-973. She and her team had jumped to it, and as soon as she was alone in her car, she'd turned on the radio (making sure that the mic was disconnected) just in case Hei was involved. And sure enough, through the tiny earpiece she'd heard Yin informing him that his target was heading up to the third floor of a hotel, disguised as staff. Misaki didn't know for sure which hotel he was in; but now she'd bet anything that it was Hotel Tateshina.

The hotel and both radios were quiet for several long minutes. Then Yin's voice broke the silence.

"He saw me. He's running; he has the item."

There was no response from Hei.

She heard Mao's voice next. "Police, across the street. That nosy lady cop again. Better take care of him inside." _Damn it_. It was too easy for a black cat to hide in the night-cloaked streets of the city.

"New star activity!" Ootsuka's voice broke in, garbled and grainy compared to the expensive radio in Misaki's ear. "BK-201. We have a location: the roof of Hotel Tateshina. Be advised, he appears to be in conflict with DU-973."

_Shit_. Misaki jumped out of her car and ran across the street, heedless of any oncoming traffic. Saitou and Kouno would also be moving on the contractors; but she was closer, and sure to get there first.

She pushed through the hotel doors and scanned the modest lobby for the stairwell. Locating it, she sped towards the stairs, drawing her gun as she opened the door. The stairwell was clear. Misaki headed up, wondering what she would find when she reached the top - and what she would do about it.

Five floors later her legs were burning, but she reached the door to the roof; it had been broken open, and now hung slightly ajar. She couldn't see anything through the gap. Breath ragged from the climb, Misaki paused briefly to try and settle her heart rate, then pushed the door open as silently as she could and stepped out onto the roof, gun raised.

The first thing that she saw was the dark shape of a body on the floor. She felt a fleeting moment of panic at the thought that it was Hei; then she saw another dark figure moving towards the roof's edge, and recognized him instantly.

"Freeze! Police!" It wasn't what she wanted to say, but it came out automatically.

He looked back, white mask gleaming in the orange lights of the surrounding city. Then he turned away, and stepped up onto the parapet.

"Wait! Hei!" But it was too late. He jumped over the edge without a backward glance. Misaki ran up to the parapet and looked over; not a sign of him.

The door banged open behind her. "Chief! Are you alright?"

"Fine," she told Saitou in a falsely brisk voice, hoping that it hid her disappointment. She turned away from the edge and holstered her gun. "DU-973. Is he dead?"

Kouno crouched down next to the body and checked the man's pulse. "As a doornail," he said. "No marks that I can see."

"Where's BK-201?" Saitou asked.

Misaki just shook her head. She could hear Huang on the radio, directing Hei and Mao to a rendezvous. She couldn't follow; there was a crime scene to secure, and paperwork waiting for her at the office.

~~~~o~~~~

Misaki finally arrived at the door to her apartment, feet dragging. Her five-flight stair run at the end of an already long day had nearly wiped her out. And she was dreading what she was going to have to tell the Director tomorrow. He'd been none too pleased by her actions on Saturday despite the take-down of an MSS spy ring, and her team was a little put out that she'd run up to the hotel roof alone without even radioing her intent first - though they'd left that out of their reports. BK-201, escaped on her watch for the second time in a week. She was looking forward to a glass of wine and a hot bath before bed.

She unlocked her apartment door and flicked on the lights, kicking off her shoes. Her purse and suit jacket followed, dumped unceremoniously onto the entryway table.

 

Misaki was halfway into the kitchen before she realized that she wasn't alone in the apartment. Hei was sitting on the living room sofa, hunched over his knees and watching her under heavy-lidded eyes. He was all in black, weapons harness still strapped on, his trench coat draped over the seat next to him. He looked as tired as she felt.

She recovered from her initial start quickly, despite the pounding of her heart. "What are you doing here?" she asked warily.

She wanted him to answer by slowly walking up to her, taking her in his arms, and kissing her until they were both breathless and dizzy. But he didn't move.

"You still have my radio."

"Oh. Right." Misaki wondered if he knew that she'd been listening in tonight. She removed it from her pocket; at least she hadn't still been wearing it in her ear. She walked over to the sofa and dropped the radio into his outstretched hand, then took a step back. His body language wasn't exactly inviting.

Hei tucked the device into a pocket in his coat, but still didn't get up. Misaki wished that he would; it was awkward, her standing in front of him like that. She felt like she was under interrogation. But sitting down beside him would be just as awkward. She didn't trust herself to be close to him, and without a clear signal from him, wouldn't risk it.

"You used my name," he said, narrowing his eyes a little.

She had, hadn't she. "It was a mistake. An accident. There was no one else there to hear, but I'll be more careful next time."

"No next times," Hei said in that cold, flat voice that meant that he was trying to bury his emotions but gave no hint as to what those emotions were. "You need to stay away from me, do you understand? You're going to get hurt." The words held the form of a threat, but she thought she heard a plea beneath them. He didn't want her getting hurt because of him.

She could have protested that of course there would be more instances of her running into him on a mission, for as long as he was in the city; but she was sure that he knew that. Just as he knew that it was dangerous for him to be in her apartment. But he was there anyway. He probably didn't realize how cruel of him that was; cruelty was not a trait he possessed.

"Just be more careful," he said curtly. Then, a little softer, "What did you want?"

She frowned. "What?"

He gazed at her with those deep, deep dark eyes. "When you asked me to wait."

"Oh. I…I don't know," she confessed. "Nothing." Why had she called out to him? On a rooftop in the middle of the city, with his team waiting and hers right on her heels?

Hei averted his eyes and stood to go, turning towards his coat. Misaki took another step back, to be sure not to crowd him. As he reached down, she saw a runnel of red form along the back of his other hand; a crimson drop fell from his fingertip.

"Hei, you're hurt!"

He looked at his hand, uninterested. "It's nothing." Then his gaze traveled further down; she saw his eyes widen at the sight of the fresh blood stain on her cream colored carpet. "Ah," he said as his face took on an endearingly abashed look. "I can clean that…"

A laugh escaped Misaki's mouth. "Go into the bathroom," she said behind her hand, trying to keep from laughing again. "I can at least bandage that for you, so you don't bleed all the way home."

She pointed the way to the bathroom; Hei hesitated at first.

" _Go_ ," she said again, more sternly, and he went, giving her an unreadable look as he did so. He held his arm against his stomach in an effort to not damage her carpet any further. Before joining him, Misaki went into the kitchen and soaked a towel with cold water to lay over the stain before the blood could seep into the fibers. It was a tiny spot, but she'd only just replaced the carpet a year ago.

She blotted the stain, then left the towel to sit over it and stared at the light spilling into the short hallway in front of the bathroom door. Deciding.

Hei was standing at the sink when Misaki entered the bathroom, unwinding a strip of black cloth from just above his elbow. Black on black, she hadn't noticed the makeshift bandage earlier. He dropped it into the sink; the cloth was soaked through and left a smear of blood on the porcelain. There was more blood dripping from his hand, but the tile floor of the bathroom would be easy to clean.

"Take your shirt off," she ordered, eyeing the wide tear in his sleeve. The fabric was too tight to be rolled all the way above his elbow.

He made no response except for a gratifying, slight blush, and began to unbuckle his weapons harness.

Her bathroom was small and utilitarian; she'd traded counter space for a wide soaker tub, and never yet regretted it. But it meant that there was hardly enough room for two people to stand at the sink. She pressed in beside him so that she could get at the medicine cabinet, forcing him to move further into the room to keep from brushing against her. His usual intensity was gone; she tried to keep from smiling at the thought that just being close to her was making him nervous. It was certainly how _he_ made _her_ feel.

Misaki set about collecting the supplies that she'd need to dress his wound; she wasn't anywhere near as well as equipped as his safe house in Roppongi had been, but what she did have should be enough.

As she rummaged in the cabinet above the sink, she watched out of the corner of her eye as he set his knives in the bathtub for lack of a better place. He pulled his shirt up over his head, and the sight of his bare torso made her heart skip a beat. The bottom of his shirt was ragged where he had cut the cloth for the bandage. His arm was red from the elbow down, but she thought that most of it was blood that had soaked into his sleeve, then rubbed off on his skin. He dropped the shirt into the tub with the knives.

"Sit down," she said, gesturing to the edge of the bathtub. When he'd sat, she seated herself on the toilet, which was next to the tub. So close that their knees were touching.

"Here." Gently taking his elbow, she placed his arm on her lap where she could easily see the gash, on the side of his triceps. It wasn't wide, but it was deep, and the blood leaked from it slowly but steadily.

"Your clothes," he said. If resting his arm across her thighs made him uncomfortable, he didn't show it.

"You're hardly the first person who's bled on me," Misaki said. "I know a good dry cleaner." But she reached behind her and snagged a hand towel which she tucked under his arm. She hated having to make an extra trip to the cleaners.

She wet a few large squares of gauze in rubbing alcohol and started cleaning the area around his wound, keeping one hand on his forearm to steady it. His muscles were tight beneath her hand; maybe he wasn't as relaxed as he appeared after all.

"How did this happen with your coat on?" she asked as she worked.

"The coat is impervious to bullets, not knives."

That's right - they'd found a knife near the contractor's body, a short, nasty weapon that could easily be concealed in the palm of the hand. She'd assumed it was one of Hei's; he certainly carried enough.

"Hm." She finished with the surrounding area, and began cleaning the cut itself. Hei grimaced a little when the alcohol came into contact with his exposed flesh, but he didn't flinch away. The alcohol helped to staunch the trickle of blood. "This is pretty deep. You might need a stitch or two."

Hei was looking at the cut as well. "Just bandage it tightly; the muscle will knit itself easily enough."

She supposed he would know better than she; most of the scars that she could see on his lean upper body were faint and smooth, signs that the wounds had been well cared for. A long, thin scar ran along the outer bone of his forearm. She traced it absently with her fingertip, wondering how he'd gotten it. Would he tell her if she asked?

Misaki realized what she was doing, and looked up abruptly to find Hei gazing at her, the desire in his dark eyes almost palpable. Her breath caught. She held his gaze for a moment, then turned to pick up the tube of antibiotic with an unsteady hand.

"Why aren't you trying to arrest me?" he asked her quietly as she spread the ointment over his cut.

"I should be, I know." Him showing up at her apartment, dressed as the Black Reaper and bleeding after she'd seen him run from a murder scene was hardly protected under the terms of the their agreement, she was sure. "But you wouldn't have come here if you'd thought that I would."

He didn't answer. She used a couple of butterfly bandages to pull the cut closed, then started winding a wide roll of gauze tightly around his arm to keep them in place, and continued speaking.

"While you're certainly one of the most dangerous contractors that we've had in the city, I can appreciate that you don't kill indiscriminately or endanger civilians. What I really want is to know who's backing you and what their goals are, but either you'll tell me voluntarily, or you won't tell me at all. Arresting you would be pointless."

She could picture him in their interrogation room, handcuffed to the table, stoic and silent for days on end no matter what threats or bargains were offered him. He had his own reasons for not betraying his organization, and the prospect of imprisonment wouldn't make a difference. That is, if they managed to arrest him in the first place, which she highly doubted.

"You sound like a contractor," he said.

"Well, that makes one of us." Misaki pulled on the gauze to make sure the bandage was tight enough, then tore it from the roll and taped the end down. "What did Morado say to you? That if he hadn't seen you use your power, he wouldn't have believed that you were a contractor? Well, I feel the same way. The more time I spend with you, the more I realize that you're not the horrible person you seem to think you are."

She expected him to protest that statement, even to get angry and argue; but he just stared pensively at his feet, brow slightly furrowed.

Misaki examined her bandaging job. There wasn't a trace of red on the gauze. "That should do it," she said.

When Hei took his arm back, fingering the bandage absently, Misaki stood and moved to put her supplies away, her heart rate increasing by the second. She replaced the rubbing alcohol and roll of gauze in the medicine cabinet and glanced over at Hei. He was still sitting hunched over on the edge of the tub, lost in thought. His tension and weariness were clear in the taut muscles of his back. She let her gaze travel languidly from his well-defined collar bones and down his flat stomach. She sucked in her breath and turned away, shutting the door of the cabinet.

"Well," she said, hoping that her voice didn't betray her nerves, "it's late, and I could really use a long hot bath; you look like you could use one too. You're welcome to join me, or you can leave. It's up to you."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him look up sharply. She couldn't read his face; his expression could have been surprise, confusion, or something else entirely. She turned a little more so that she couldn't see him at all; he made her too nervous, and if he was going to reject her, she didn't want to see it. But to make sure that her meaning was clear, she untucked her blouse and began unbuttoning it.

He still hadn't moved by the time she got to the last button; and as she dropped her shirt to the floor - bloodstains be damned - she was convinced that she'd been reading things wrong after all. She realized with a blush that she was standing between him and the door; of course he hadn't moved. But there was no way for her to make more room, and she'd look like a fool if she stopped now. He'd have to find his own way around her.

Misaki reached for the button on her pants, and almost gasped aloud when Hei's hands were suddenly there first. She hadn't heard him move, but now the length of his hard body was pressed up against her, his warm breath in her ear. She closed her eyes and let her hands rest on his as he undid the button himself. He pulled down the zipper, then slowly tugged her pants down to puddle on the floor, caressing her hips and thighs as he did so.

His arms still encircling her, he rested one hand on her stomach, and with the other he removed her glasses, setting them on the counter. He brushed her long tail of hair over the front of her shoulder. His fingers caught her bra strap in the process; the strap fell from her shoulder. She pulled her arm out of it, with his help, and removed the other strap herself. Hei undid the clasp, and her bra fell to join her pants and shirt.

Her hair out of the way, he kissed the side of her neck, working his way slowly up to her ear. Misaki turned her head and met his lips, overlaying her hands on his once again. He kissed her long, and slow, and deep. She could feel his physical desire for her and deliberately pressed her hips back, shivering at the guttural sound she drew from him.

"Slow down," he said, breathing heavily and nipping at her ear. "We have all night."

His words did nothing to encourage her to slow down, but rather stoked her building passion. She twisted in his arms and kissed him again, hard. One of his hands drifted down to her rear, while the other pulled her tightly against his chest. He was moving slowly, deliberately, and it was agonizingly sweet torture.

She took his belt in her hands, but to her increasing frustration she couldn't figure out how to undo the complicated fastenings. Hei eventually did it himself; as soon as he had it loose, she pulled it off and dropped it to the floor.

Misaki gripped his waistband, intending that his pants follow the belt, but he took one of her hands and moved it to his thigh. She felt the hilt of a knife beneath her fingers, and remembered the weapon that he wore on his leg, the one he had used to cut her bonds in the basement of the bar. This buckle was easier, and she soon had it off. If it made a sound when it hit the floor, she didn't hear it over the pounding of her heart. She thought that she could feel his heart, beating against her breast. Both their breathing was coming short and shallow.

Just as he had, she let her hands caress his firm rear and thighs as she pushed his pants off of his hips. Before she could add his tight black shorts to the pile of clothing on the floor though, he stopped her. He cupped her face, leaning his forehead against hers, and she saw the question in his eyes, the fear. And the need. The pure depth of human emotion in his expression was breathtaking.

"The bedroom's across the hall," she answered before he could say anything, and kissed him again, bath forgotten.

~~~~o~~~~

Misaki opened her eyes slowly. It was later; how much later she wasn't sure. She might have been asleep for hours, or she might have only been dozing in the afterglow. It was still nighttime, in any case; the only light in the room was that which was bleeding across the hall from the bathroom.

Hei was beside her still, lying on his stomach with his arm draped across her and their legs entangled. The warm weight of him on her body was comforting. Her hand rested on his back, and she felt no trace of his usual tension beneath her fingers. She closed her eyes again, too content and sleepy to move, not even to shift the arm that was going numb beneath his head.

She might have fallen asleep again. Vaguely, she became aware that Hei was awake. He disentangled himself from her carefully, gently, and she felt the mattress shift as he moved. She opened her eyes halfway to see the outline of his form sitting up on the edge of the bed.

He was going to leave. She was suddenly wide awake.

"Hei, wait," she said softly, sitting up herself. The sheets were warm where he had been lying.

"I need to go," he said, sounding empty.

"When will I see you again?"

In the dim light she saw his back stiffen, and heard him breathe in, in preparation to speak. She knew what the words would be.

"Don't say this was a mistake!" she said angrily. "Don't say we can't ever see each other again!" She was angry with him for not trying harder, and angry with herself for the tears that were so close to falling.

He exhaled slowly, but didn't say anything, which confirmed that her guess had been right. She moved closer to him and wrapped her arms around his waist, burying her face in his neck to breathe in the smell of him.

"I know we had a deal, but I can't keep it anymore. I can't forget you, and if you leave, you'll find me on your doorstep tomorrow. You'll have to erase my memory after all."

He was silent for an unusually long time; she might have fallen asleep there, resting against his back and listening to his steady, measured breaths going in and out, if not for the sharp ache of pain at the thought of losing him.

"What if we made a new agreement?" he said at last.

"What?" Misaki asked. She realized that her cheeks were wet, but made no move to dry them.

"Do you have something brightly colored? Like a scarf, or a hat?"

"I have a pink headscarf," she said, confused by the question. Her great-aunt had given it to her years ago, but Misaki hated pink and she hated anything covering her ears. She'd only kept the scarf because her aunt was still alive and Misaki lived in fear of offending her more traditional older relative. Any more than she already did, anyway.

"If you want to see me again some night, hang the scarf in your bedroom window," Hei said; Misaki thought she could hear the blush in his voice, and smiled. "If I'm in the area, and I'm not busy, maybe I'll come up."

Her smile grew wider. "Deal," she said, and turned his face so that she could take his lips in hers. And as he laid her back onto the bed, kissing her sweetly and hungrily, she knew that he was lying about the 'maybe'.

* * *

 

_fin_


End file.
